Performance of Frieswal Cows in Different Agro-Climatic Regions

Abstract

A total number of 5999 records of 1911 Frieswal cows, progeny of 285 sires, collected from Military Farms at Meerut, Ambala, Jammu, Secunderabad and Bengdubi over a period of 18 years from 1987 to 2004 were used to study the production and reproduction performance of Frieswal cows in different agro-climatic regions of the country, one also to determine the impact of genetic and non- genetic factors on production and reproduction traits and to estimate the genetic parameters of production and reproduction. Traits considered are age at first calving (AFC), weight at first calving (WFC), service period (SP), dry period (DP), calving interval (CI), total lactation milk yield (TLMY), 300 days milk yield (300 · DY), peak yield (PY) and lactation length (LL). The least squares means of AFC, WFC, SP, DP, CI, TLMY, 300 DY, PY and LL were 1003.15±9.3 days, 374.44±3.67 kg, 129.71±7.21 days, 103.49±4.34 days, 405.13±6.87 days, 3073.48±69.23 kg, 3060.69±60.65 kg, 14.21±0.27 kg and 321.36±2.91 days, respectively. The effect of different farms was significant on AFC, SP, DP, CI, TLMY, 300 DY, . PY and LL. Milk yield in 300 days and in entire lactation was the highest at Military Farm, Meerut and the lowest at Military Farm, Bengdubi. Military Farm, Meerut has the shortest AFC followed by Ambala, Jammu, Bengdubi and Secunderabad. The results indicated that Military Farms located in central and western regions had better performance as compared to those located in eastern and northern regions. The effect of season of birth/calving was highly significant on AFC, SP, DP, CI, TLMY, 300 DY, PY and LL. In general, cows calved in winter season produced higher milk as compared to other seasons. It was noticed that cows in later years had higher milk production and shorter AFC as compared to previous years. Lactation number also had a significant effect on SP, DP, CI, TLMY, 300 DY, PY and LL. TLMY improved over the parities and reached to the level of 3237.19±89.27 kg in fifth parity. The linear effect of AFC was significant on TLMY, 300 DY, PY and LL. The heritability estimates were high for AFC (.529±.690) and WFC (.326±.089), low for SP (.137±.043), CI (.135±.043), TLMY (.179±.030), 300 DY (.128±.038) and PY(.189±.031) and very low for DP (.060±.038) and LL(.068±.023). The genetic and phenotypic correlation of TLMY was medium with LL (.695±.109 and .539) and high with 300 DY (1.023±.018 and .919) and PY(.848±.043 and .723). The environmental correlation of DP was low with LL (00), negative low with TLMY (-.07), 300 DY (-.214), PY (-.277) and medium with Cl (.689). Cl had low environmental correlation with TLMY (.126), and negative low with 300 DY (-.128) and PY ( -.182). Milk yield in 300 days had low environmental correlation with LL (00) and high with PY (.735).