| Livestock Research for Rural Development 31 (5) 2019 | Guide for preparation of papers | LRRD Newsletter | Citation of this paper |
The study was performed to assess the reproductive performance of Madura cattle under farmers’ management condition in Madura, Indonesia. A total of 120 Madura cattle were equally grouped into three parities (parity 2, 3, and 4) with each parity consisted of 40 cattle. The assessment of reproductive performance includes the number of services per conception, conception rate, days open, gestation length, and calving interval. The results showed that all of the reproductive traits observed in this study did not differ among parity 2, 3, and 4. The overall mean number of services per conception, conception rate, days open, gestation length, and calving interval of Madura cattle were 1.62, 58%, 134 days, 284 days, and 417 days, respectively. Overall, the reproductive performances of Madura cattle are similar among parity 2, 3, and 4. The Madura cattle raised by small-scale farmers in Madura, Indonesia still do not meet the optimal values for efficient reproductive performance
Keywords: artificial insemination, calving interval, conception rate, days open, Indonesian native cattle
Currently, the Indonesian beef cattle industry shows a very rapid development to fulfill national meat demands. The population of beef cattle in 2014 was 14.7 million, which then increase in 2018 to become 17.1 million heads (Indonesian Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health 2018). Unfortunately, this increase in population is not entirely derived from local cattle because 55% of beef demands in Indonesia are still from imported cattle (Agus and Widi 2018). Therefore, efforts to further increase the productivity of Indonesian local cattle are still being carried out, one of them in terms of reproduction improvement.
Artificial insemination (AI) is one of the reproductive technologies, which could improve genetic quality and reproductive efficiency (Diskin 2018). The use of AI could cope various technical problems, including being able to overcome the scarcity of bulls in certain areas, reduce the calving interval, and being able to improve the genetic quality of offspring. However, the success of AI is also influenced by several factors including the parity of the cows. The parity determines the maturity of reproductive systems and subsequently may affect the fertility of the cows.
Madura cattle is officially declared as one of the Indonesian native cattle breeds (Decree of Minister of Agriculture Number 3735/kpts/Hk.040/11/2010). Madura cattle are mostly reared by small-scale farmers in East Java Province, especially in Madura Island. The general characteristics of Madura cattle including yellowish brown to dark red of body color with the presence of black color around the eye and tail tip, white color with the unclear border in the legs and rump, and little horns lead to the outside (Maylinda et al 2017). Madura cattle is well-known for their good adaptability to tropical environment, they could grow well even though with the low-quality feed, and they have high carcass yield with good meat quality (Sutarno and Setyawan 2016). In order to support the national program to increase the productivity of local cattle, the AI program has been long applied in Madura. However, the maximum results have not been achieved. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the reproductive performance of Madura cattle under farmers’ management condition in Madura, Indonesia.
The study was carried out at Tambelangan District, Madura, Indonesia. The location is extended from 6o 59’ to 7o 06’ South latitude and 113o 06’ to 113o 11’ East longitude, with the mean altitude of around 69 m above sea level. The climatic condition in this study area is tropical with the temperature varying from 26.2 to 28.1oC, while the rainfall ranges between 16 and 239 mm per month.
The study was done on 120 Madura cattle raised by the small-scale farmers. The cows were equally grouped into three parities (parity 2, 3, and 4) with each parity consisted of 40 cows. Generally, the cows were fed elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum), native grass ( Axonopus compressus), rice straw (Oryza sativa), peanut straw (Arachis hypogaea L.), maize green forage (Zea mays ), and trembesi leaves (Samanea saman) with the mean proportion of 3.83, 11.75, 4.47, 3.68, 4.39, and 4.12 kg/day/cow, respectively, which provide 53.9% total digestible nutrient and 9.83% crude protein. The cows were artificially inseminated as per standard protocol of Sampang Livestock Services. The data of reproductive performance include the number of services per conception, conception rate, days open, gestation length, and calving interval. The data of reproductive performance were obtained from records, while the farmer identity was obtained from the direct interview.
The conception rate was measured as a binary trait (0 = not conceive, 1 = conceive) and analyzed using chi-square test. The other reproductive performance data were initially tested for normality (Kolmogorov-Smirnov). The data which did not meet the normal distribution (number of services per conception and gestation length) were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test. On the other hand, the data which are normally distributed (days open and calving interval) were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. All statistical procedures were performed using SPSS 16.0 software.
The number of services per conception did not differ among the parities of Madura cattle (Table 1). In agreement with this finding, Sasaki et al (2016) also reported that the number of services per conception was similar among parities 2, 3, and 4 of Japanese Black cows. At parity 2, 3, and 4, the anterior hypophysis has optimally developed so that it could produce sufficient Follicle Stimulating Hormone for development of ovarian follicle. In addition, at this stage, the Luteinizing Hormone (LH) is also already produced in sufficient quantity for follicle maturation which then could stimulate estrogen production resulting in the obvious estrous sign. Consequently, when the insemination is conducted at the accurate time, the success of fertilization will be high. Moreover, with sufficient LH, the rest of ovulation will be grown to become corpus luteum, which will be acted as progesterone producer to maintain the fetus during gestation. Ultimately, the number of services per conception at parity 2, 3, and 4 were similar.
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Table 1. Comparison of reproductive performance among different parities of Madura cattle |
|||||
|
Items |
Parity 2 |
Parity 3 |
Parity 4 |
SEM |
p |
|
Number of services per conception |
1.65 |
1.73 |
1.48 |
0.075 |
0.383 |
|
Conception rate, % |
57.5 |
50 |
65 |
4.53 |
0.398 |
|
Days open, days |
135 |
134 |
132 |
1.71 |
0.792 |
|
Gestation length, days |
285 |
284 |
283 |
1.2 |
0.667 |
|
Calving inteval, days |
420 |
417 |
415 |
1.83 |
0.527 |
The overall mean number of services per conception of Madura cattle in this study was 1.62. This current result was relatively better than the other Indonesian native breeds such as in Bali cattle with 1.68 (Rahayu, 2014) and in Jabres cattle with 1.71 (Panjono et al 2017). However, it was still not as efficient as Japanese Black cows with the number of services per conception of 1.41 (Uchida et al 2002).
The conception rate is the percentage of pregnant cows at first service. The results showed that the different parities of Madura cattle had a similar conception rate (Table 1) with the overall mean value of 58%. In one study, Long et al (2008) found that the parity did not influence the pregnancy rate of beef cows. The similar conception rate among parity 2, 3, and 4 may be due to equal reproductive development. Within these parities, the reproductive organs were perfectly developed and the hormonal system was working optimally so that the cows could produce ova with good quality, resulting in a high fertilization rate and the fetus could grow well. Consequently, the conception rate was equal among parity 2, 3, and 4. In addition, the conception rate of Madura cattle found in this study was relatively higher than the 3-year study conducted by Ratnawati et al (2016) who found that the Brahman cross cattle raised in East Java, Indonesia had the mean conception rate of 45.3%.
The days open indicates the interval period between the time of calving to the next conception. The days open of Madura cattle did not differ among parity 2, 3, and 4 (overall mean = 134 days) (Table 1).. Similarly, Sasaki et al (2016) also found that there was no difference of days open in Japanese Black cows among parities 2, 3, and 4. The result of days open found in this study was relatively better than those reported by Ratnawati et al (2016) who observed that the mean value of days open of Brahman cross cattle raised in East Java, Indonesia during 2012 to 2013 was 168 days. In another study, Suyadi et al (2014) reported that Ongole crossbred cattle raised in Indonesia had 138 days open. However, this current result is still not enough to provide good reproductive performance and still categorized as poor. Uchida et al (2002) reported more efficient results of days open with the value of 102 days in Japanese Black cows.
One of the reasons which may be related to the poor days open value of Madura cattle is the limited supply of minerals and vitamins. In this current study, the Madura cattle were only fed green fodder and agricultural by-product without any vitamin and mineral supplement. Spears and Weiss (2014) explained that minerals and vitamins are the crucial factors affecting reproductive performance. In a study, it was reported that the cows without any vitamins and trace elements administration had 31.5% lower level of postpartum FSH than those in the treated group (Omur et al 2016). The insufficient level of FSH may be responsible for the existence of repeat breeding condition in the cows (Barui et al 2015). Moreover, Garg et al (2008) found that feeding the cows without any minerals and vitamins supplement resulting in the anestrous problem and delay in the insemination time. Another possible factor which causes inefficient days open found in this study was the longer suckling period. In this study, the calf was suckled until 3 to 5 month, so that the days open was longer than the optimum condition. According to Montiel and Ahuja (2005), suckling is one of the main factors which affect the postpartum anestrous period. During the suckling period, the release of LH will be reduced, resulting in the failure of ovulation, and consequently, give prolonged postpartum anestrous (Yavas and Walton 2000). Those mentioned studies clearly demonstrated that the limited availability of minerals and vitamins as well as the longer suckling period might alter the estrous cycle and as a consequence could provide longer days open.
In this study, it was observed that the parities had no effect on gestation length of Madura cattle (Table 1). The equal gestation length of Madura cattle here studied may be because of the equal reproductive organs development among parities 2, 3, and 4, so that the period of fetus development was similar among these parities. A longer gestation length was observed in Japanese Black cows with 288 days (Uchida et al 2002). Irrespective of breed, Jainudeen and Hafez (2000) noted that the gestation length in the cattle ranged between 278 and 293 days. It could be stated that the Madura cattle observed in this study had a normal gestation length.
No significant effect of parities was recorded on the calving interval of Madura cattle (Table 1). In line with this finding, Drennan and Berry (2006) also reported that the parity had no effect on calving interval. The calving interval of Madura cattle seemed to be less efficient than the other breeds of beef cattle. Previously, it was observed that the overall mean of calving interval of British beef herds was 394 days (Gates 2013). In another study, the calving interval of Japanese Black cows was 390 days (Uchida et al 2002). Moreover, the results obtained in this study were also almost as high as the superior limit in the standard range. As explained by Jainudeen and Hafez (2000), the calving interval in cattle ranged from 365 to 425 days.
The calving interval value depends on the days open and gestation length. Between these two factors, the days open seemed to be the most crucial one, since the gestation length appeared to have a fixed period. The target of calving interval is 365 days meaning that a cow should produce a calf every year. However, this target can only be reached if the days open was 80 to 85 days (Yavas and Walton 2000). In this study, the days open was longer than the optimum condition as affected by poor nutrition factor and long suckling period. Consequently, the calving period becomes inefficient.
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Received 24 January 2019; Accepted 14 April 2019; Published 1 May 2019