Milk productivity of cows of the active part of the Simmental breed population

Abstract

Relevance. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, for January 1, 2020, 77.0 thousand heads of pedigree Simmental cattle were bred in the Republic of Kazakhstan, including 34.7 thousand cows. In recent years, due to some weakening of the primary zootechnical record keeping in pedigree animal husbandry, conflicting information on the productivity of dairy cattle, including in the Simmental breed, has been observed. In this regard, the relevance of research is to study the real situation of the productivity of dairy cattle, in particular in the population of Simmental cattle.Methods. In the work, generally accepted zootechnical methods for processing data of the obtained results were used. The average values of the characteristics, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, and the reliability of the difference between the average values were calculated according to existing methods [1, 2], as well as using the Xcel program.Results. Information obtained from the database of the information-analytical system showed that 8.3 thousand animals from the total recorded livestock of Simmental cattle had complete information on milk yield, fat and protein content in milk, which in turn were attributed to the active part of the population of this breed. The average milk yield of this livestock was 4774 kg, with a fat and protein content in milk of 4.01 and 3.30%, respectively. It was established that animals of the second and third lactation had the highest productivity, while the content of fat and protein in milk for all lactations was stably preserved. The most favorable calving for Simmental cows is the autumn season, as their indicators significantly exceeded the value of animals calving in the spring, summer and winter periods of the year.