Seasonal and parity effects on some performance and reproductive characteristics of crossbred dairy cows raised under tropical conditions of the Sudan

E O Amasaib, A M Fadel-Elseed, A G Mahala and A A Fadlelmoula*

Department of Animal Nutrition; Faculty of Animal production, University of Khartoum-Sudan.
abdelazizfadlelmoula@gmail.com
* Department of Genetics and animal breeding; Faculty of Animal production, University of Khartoum-Sudan.

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to estimate some performance and reproductive traits of crossbred dairy cows raised under tropical conditions of the Sudan. Data used in the study were collected from Kenana dairy farm in the white Nile state, subjected to statistical analysis using general linear statistical model aided by the statistical package of Statstica. The traits measured were total milk yield, daily milk yield, lactation length, dry period, calving interval age at first calving and number of services per conception. Parity number had a significant effect only on total milk yield and daily milk; whereas season of calving significantly affected only total milk yield, and lactation length. 

Key words: Age at first calving, calving interval, milk yield, number of services per conception

Introduction

Crossbred cattle (Bos taurus x Bos indicus) contribute with an appreciable amount of milk in Sudan. There has been an increase in the number of farms with intensive production systems using European dairy breeds in the last decades. There is a considerable amount of improvement in production from crossing Bos indicus to Bos taurus dairy breeds for milk production in the tropical countries. Earlier Gregory and Cundiff (1980) have declared that crossbreeding optimizes the additive genetic and non-additive genetic effects of B.taurus and B. indicus cattle breeds. It has been revealed that lactation milk yield and calving interval showed consistent improvement with increasing temperate blood up to 50% and thereafter an increase in calving interval could be observed but without clear trend in milk yield (Cunningham and Syrstad 1987). Similar results were also reported by Rege et al (1994) and Talbott (1994). In addition to the additive difference between the two breeds, their first crosses show an improvement in performance due to the fact that they possess 100% heterozygosity with respect to breed of origin (Kahi et al 2000). Season of calving was found to affect the performance of crossbred cows in the studies of Mureda and Zeleke, (2007), Yifat et al (2009) and Yusuf et al (2010).

The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the effect of season of calving and parity on some production and reproductive traits of Holstein-Friesian crossbred cows under tropical environment.

Materials and Methods

The study was conducted in White Nile area utilizing the Kenana dairy farm production records during the period 2004-2008. The farm stock consists of 1340 head: 400 lactating cows, 230 bull calves, 220 heifer calves and 13 bulls. Data on lactation performance records including total milk yield (TMY), daily milk yield (DMY), lactation length (LL), dry period (DP), calving interval (CI), age at first calving (AFC) and number of services per conception (NSPC); from 1-3 parities of Holstein Friesian crossbred cows were used. The data were grouped according to the year of calving into three seasons: summer (March, April, May, June), autumn (July, August, September, October), winter (November, December, January, February). Then it was subjected to statistical analysis using the computer program of Statstica (2010). The following general linear statistical model was designed for the analysis:

Y_ijkm = µ +s_i+ p_j+sp_k+e_ijkm

 Where, 

                     Y_ijk = Individual observation for trait Y_ijk

µ = Over all mean for trait Y

s_i = Fixed effect of the  i^th season 

p_j = Fixed effect of the  j^th parity

sp_k = Fixed effect of the k^thseason x parity interaction

e_ijkm = Residual error with zero mean and σ² variance

Results and Discussion

Table 1 shows the total milk yield in three consecutive parities. The production was similar to that in the study of Amasaib et al (2008) who reported 2564 kg as total milk yield for crossbred Friesian dairy cattle with 62.5% foreign blood. Parity number had a significant effect on total milk yield (P< 0.05) with the highest value for third lactation followed by the second and first lactations. This result agrees with the finding of Mohamed (2004) who demonstrated that milk yield increased with advancing lactation up to 4^th parity.

 Season of calving has an important impact on productive and reproductive traits, as the high temperature increases respiratory rate and severely depresses feed intake and milk production. A significant effect was detected for season of calving on total milk yield and it is clear from Tables 2, 3 and 4 that cows that calved in winter secured the highest milk yield per lactation compared to dry summer  or wet summer-autumn calving. This result is in accordance with that of Anwar et al (2009) and Abate et al (2010). 

Parity number exerted a significant effect on daily milk yield with ascending values from the first to the third lactation (Table 1). This result is in close relation to that of Mohamed (2004). On the other hand, season of calving had no significant effect on daily milk yield (Tables 2,3 and 4). This result is in the line with that of Hatungumuka-ma et al (2007).  The calculated lactation length is closer to that of Tadesse and Dessie (2003), who reported 279 days for Barca cows in Ethiopia; but lower than the findings of Dhara et al (2006) for crossbred dairy cattle in west Bengal. However, Kiwuwa et al (1983) reported that cows with Friesian genes tend to have longer lactation length than the local breed.

This may indicate that increasing milk yield may be primary due to the variation in daily milk yield and not for the lactation length; Musa et al (2005) indicated the same conclusion. Season of calving on the other hand exerted a significant effect on lactation length (Tables 2-4). Cows calved in summer had the longer lactation length followed by autumn calving cows. The same was reported by Tadesse and Dessie (2003).

The dry period , or off milking period, is necessary for compensation for the depleted nutrients during lactation and gaining stimulation for a new lactation period. Thus an optimum dry period is essential for maximum production of milk in subsequent lactation. The overall mean dry period in this result was found to be 133 days which was significantly affected by parity number (P<0.05) as shown in Table 1. However, Musa et al (2005) reported 112 days for Sudanese cattle, while Ishag (2000) found that the dry period for crossbred dairy cattle in the Sudan was 90.5 days.

Average calving interval was found to be 386 days and was not affected by parity number (Table 1). This value is close to the recommended value 365 days which indicates that the selected cows were of good fertility. This result was similar to the finding of Elhabeeb (1991) for Butana cattle but different from the findings of Mureda and Zeleke (2007).

Tropical dairy breeds are genetically late maturing animals compared to temperate breeds, so adoption of crossbreeding my assist in reducing the animal age at first calving and improve the fertility of the animals. On the other hand, a short age at first calving was found to be highly correlated with 100 days milk yield and peak milk yield (Mohamed 2004). Younger age at first calving is beneficial in that it can potentially lead to an earlier return on investment. Average age at first calving in this result was found to be 20.4 months and was affected by parity number (Table 1) but not by season of calving (Table 2). Previous studies found that average age at first calving was 44 months for local Sudanese breeds (Musa et al 2005). On the other hand, Abu Nikhaila et al (2004) found that age at first calving of imported Holstein Friesian, their locally born daughters and crossbred cattle under Sudan environment were 26.9, 26.1 and 42.2  months respectively.

The mean number of services per conception were 2.5, 2.7 and 2.7 for the first, second and third lactations (Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4) with no seasonal or parity effect (P> 0.05). Similar findings were reported by Mureda and Zeleke (2007) and Yoseph et al (2003) for crossbred cows in Ethiopia .

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Received 25 January 2011; Accepted 16 February 2011; Published 1 April 2011

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