Study of effect of various genetic and non-genetic factors on milk yield in Frieswal cattle

Abstract

The present study was carried out on data of 3,425 Frieswal cattle (Holstein Friesian × Sahiwal cattle) maintained at Military Farm, Pimpri, Pune, Maharashtra. Total 9,094 lactation records were collected from 3,425 cows born to 239 sires. The data were analyzed using SAS software. The collected data were normalized and utilized for studying effect of genetic and non-genetic factors on milk yield. The PROC GLM procedures of SAS were used to quantify the effect of non-genetic factors on milk yield. The non-genetic factors considered for the present study were period of calving, season of calving and parity whereas, the covariate considered was age at first calving (AFC). The estimated overall least squares mean of lactation milk yield was observed as 3188.65±10.93 kg in Frieswal cattle. The effect of period of calving, and parity was highly significant on lactation milk yield while the season of calving had significantly affected the milk yield. The age of first calving as a covariate had highly significant effect on milk yield. Amongst the genetic factors, the effect of sire was considered and found to be highly significant on lactation milk yield.