Biotechnology in Animal Husbandry 26 (5-6), p 287-295 , 2010 ISSN 1450-9156
Publisher: Institute for Animal Husbandry, Belgrade-Zemun UDC 636.082.1
DOI:10.2298/BAH1006287P
THE EFFECT OF BREEDING REGION AND YEAR ON
MILK TRAITS OF SIMMENTAL BULL DAMS
V. Pantelić
1
, S. Aleksić
1
, P. Stojić
2
, R. Đurđević
3
, Lj. Samolovac
2
, D.
Janković
4
, D. Nikšić
1
1
Institute for Animal Husbandry, Belgrade - Zemun, 11080 Zemun, R. Serbia
2
PKB Corporation – Belgrade, R. Serbia
3
SVC Velika Plana - Velika Plana, R. Serbia
4
SVC Krnjača – Beograd, R. Serbia
Corresponding author: vladap4@gmail.com
Original scientific paper
Abstract: Cows which represent top of the genetic value of the
population in regard to their traits are chosen for bull dams. Selection is
based on origin, production performance (quantity of milk, milk fat and
protein content), milking/dairy traits, reproductive indicators, exterior and
linear type scores. This study included 292 cows of Simmental breed
selected for bull dams on the territory of Republic of Serbia during one year.
Selection of cows for herd of bull dams was done after finalized first and
subsequent lactation. In this study, the effect of region and year of calving
on milk traits is presented. Applying the method of least squares average value
of milk production was obtained - 5.754,49 kg, milk fat content - 3,98% and
quantity of milk fat - 230,24 kg. Regions had statistically highly significant effect
(P<0,01) on all investigated milk traits. Year of calving showed no statistically
significant effect on milk yield, yield of milk fat and content of milk fat (P>0,05).
Key words: Simmental breed, bull dams, milk performance, region, year.
Introduction
Increase of production and improvement of the quality of milk, as well as
fertility intensity, are main prerequisites of modern cattle production. In order to
produce domestic bulls of Simmental breed it is necessary to select from main
herd/population the best cows. These animals represent 1% of top cows in the
controlled population primarily in regard to production of milk and milk fat, also
body and udder development, and fertility traits. Fertilization of bull dams is done
according to adequate system. Each cow is assigned a bull, previously selected as
bull sire, whose semen will be used for insemination (Pantelić et al., 2009).
V. Pantelić et al.
288
Croatian livestock selection centre (2003) in their annual report presented
data that in Croatia during 2002 419 Simmental bull dams had been selected.
Average production of milk in standard lactation was 6238 kg with 4.10% of milk
fat and 256 kg milk fat. The highest production of milk of 6477 kg and 4.14% milk
fat content, i.e. 268 kg of milk fat was recorded in the third lactation.
In their research pertaining to phenotypic variability of the milk traits of
Simmental bull dams, Pantelić et al. (2005) reported their production in the first
lactation of 4767.89 kg with content and yield of milk fat of 3.77% and 179.07 kg,
respectively. Calculated to 4% FCM production of 4593.25 kg was realized.
Studying the production characteristics of Simmental cows presented on
exhibitions, Stjelja et al. (2008) established average milk production in standard
lactation of 5613 kg, production of milk fat of 221.47 kg, and content of milk fat of
3.94 %. Analysis of variance showed that the region, year of exhibition and
lactation groups had significant effect (P<0.05) on all investigated milk traits.
According to data of the Selection service of the Republic of Serbia in the
Institute for Animal Husbandry, Belgrade-Zemun, average milk performance of
bull dams in the first lactation at the level of Central Serbia for 2008 was 5540 kg
of milk with 3.97 % milk fat, i.e. 218.8 kg of milk fat. Average maximum milk
performance was 6503 kg with 3.99 % i.e. 257.8 kg of milk fat. Average duration
of first lactation was 310 days, and maximum lactation was 316 days (Institute for
Animal Husbandry, 2009).
Konig et al. (2005) investigated variance components of productive and
reproductive traits. In these researches, year and season of calving showed no
significant effect on production of milk (P>0.05).
Highly significant effect of breeding region (P<0.01) on production of milk
and milk fat, milk fat content and yield of 4% FCM was confirmed by Petrović et
al. (2006) in first calving Simmental cows. The Authors believe that results
obtained indicate justification for use of linear methods, i.e. correction of
systematic conditions of the environment.
Pantelić (2006) recorded in his research highly significant effect of the
region (P<0.01) on all studied milk traits, except milk fat content where no effect
was determined (P>0.05). Year of calving exhibited no statistically significant
effect (P>0.05) on milk yield, and yield and content of milk fat.
Materials and Methods
This research included 292 cows of Simmental breed selected to be bull
dams on the territory of Republic of Serbia during one year. Selection of cows in
the herd of bull dams was carried out after completion of the first, and based on the
following lactations. The paper investigates the impact of breeding areas and year
of calving on milk traits.
Investigations included following milk traits in the standard lactation:
The effect of breeding region ...
289
- milk production, kg
- content of milk fat, %
- production of milk fat, kg
Correction of the lactation to the standard lactation of 305 days was done
using coefficients according to Nenadović, 1974. Analysis of the effect of
paragenetic factors on studied milk traits was done using the method of least
squares, fixed model:
Y
ijlm
= μ + R
i
+ G
j
+ e
ijlm
Where:
Y
ijm
= expression of investigated trait in m cow, which produced in i region and
calved in j year
μ = general average
R
i
= fixed effect of i region
G
j
= fixed effect j of the year of calving
E
ijlm
= random error
For the purpose of more precise determination of the effects of various
paragenetic factors, all bull dams included in the research originated from 7
breeding area, i.e. regions. Breeding regions and number of selected bull dams per
region are following:
1. Belgrade region – 27
2. Podunavlje region – 88
3. Braničevo region – 50
4. Zaječar region – 24
5. Kolubara region – 55
6. Pomoravlje-Rasina region – 32
7. Zlatibor region – 16
Due to specificity of the terrain, i.e. almost same configuration, and
rearing conditions for bull dams, the sixth region united municipalities of
Jagodina, Kraljevo and Kruševac.
Results and Discussion
Based on obtained results presented in Table 1 it can be concluded that
average production of milk was 5754.49 kg. The highest production of milk of
6199.11 kg of milk was produced by bull dams on the territory of second region,
and the lowest – 5356.65 kg bull dams of the seventh region.
V. Pantelić et al.
290
If we compare results obtained in this research with values obtained by
other authors, they are somewhat higher in relation to results for bull dams in the
first lactation for Central Serbia in 2008 (Institute for Animal Husbandry, 2009).
Significantly higher values in production of milk are reported by the Croatian
livestock selection centre (2003) for Simmental bull dams.
Table 1. General average (μ), deviations from the general average (ĉ), mean values of the least
squares (lsm) and their errors (S) and significance of the studied effects on milk yield in whole
lactation, kg
Effects N ĉ Sc lsm Slsm
General average
μ 975 5754.49 109.80
Regions** f
tab
=12,883 df
1
=6 df
2
=949
1 117 207.78 75.30 5962.27 127.14
2 248 444.62 56.33 6199.11 115.02
3 183 -61.82 62.48 5692.67 125.50
4 113 -137.22 78.26 5617.27 121.31
5 179 51.41 63.50 5805.91 124.85
6 72 -106.92 95.36 5647.58 147.83
7 63 -397.84 105.82 5356.65 174.04
Year of calving
ns
f
tab
= 1,751 df
1
=8 df
2
=949
1 22 -350.05 170.58 5404.44 210.89
2 31 -164.16 143.65 5590.33 187.08
3 52 -11.48 112.45 5743.01 159.93
4 92 3.59 88.24 5758.08 142.28
5 114 -4.93 80.49 5749.56 131.33
6 165 56.80 70.89 5811.30 123.73
7 198 88.42 67.38 5842.91 120.92
8 224 214.40 65.58 5968.89 119.54
9 77 167.40 103.82 5921.90 151.76
ns – P>0.05 * – P<0.05 ** – P<0.01
Production of milk was under highly significant influence of breeding
region (P<0.01). Demonstrated differences in milk production per regions can be
explained by different effect of climatic factors, nutrition and rearing/housing. In
the study of the genetic variability of the lactation persistence of Simmental cows
Đurđević et al. (2002) concluded that the investigation of the effect of known
environment factors was justified, because the knowledge of their action can
contribute to more objective assessment of random effects. Specifically in this case
the effect of the farm was highly significant on yield of milk in lactation of 305
days (P<0.01).
Year of calving had no effect on production of milk (P>0.05). In analysis
of obtained results it can be observed that the production was sufficiently uniform.
The effect of breeding region ...
291
Identical results of the effect of the calving year on milk production were obtained
by Konig et al. (2005).
Table 2. General average (μ), deviations from the general average (ĉ), mean values of the least
squares (lsm) and their errors (S) and significance of the studied effects on the milk fat content
in whole lactation, %
Effects N ĉ Sc lsm Slsm
General average
μ 975 3.987 0.016
Regions** f
tab
=18,821 df
1
=6 df
2
=949
1 117 0.019 0.011 4.006 0.018
2 248 0.041 0.008 4.029 0.017
3 183 -0.072 0.009 3.916 0.018
4 113 0.037 0.011 4.024 0.018
5 179 0.033 0.009 4.020 0.018
6 72 -0.016 0.014 3.971 0.021
7 63 -0.042 0.015 3.946 0.025
Calving year
ns
f
tab
= 2,140 df
1
=8 df
2
=949
1 22 -0.034 0.025 3.953 0.031
2 31 -0.050 0.021 3.938 0.027
3 52 0.016 0.016 4.003 0.023
4 92 0.020 0.013 4.008 0.021
5 114 0.026 0.012 4.013 0.019
6 165 -0.011 0.010 3.977 0.018
7 198 0.017 0.010 4.005 0.018
8 224 0.010 0.009 3.997 0.017
9 77 0.006 0.015 3.993 0.022
ns – P>0.05 * – P<0.05 ** – P<0.01
Milk fat content, contrary to production of milk and milk fat, was under
greater influence of genotype than environment factors. Mean values for content of
milk fat, as well as different influence of paragenetic factors established by method
of least squares are presented in Table 2.
Highly significant effect on milk fat content (P<0.01) was established for
breeding region. The highest percentage of milk fat – 4.02% was recorded in
Podunavlje region, and the lowest – 3.91 % in Braničevo region. Year of calving
had no significant effect (P>0.05) on percentage of milk fat. Deviations from the
general average ranged from–0.050% (2. year) to 0.026% (5. year).
Highly significant of the breeding region (P<0,01) on milk fat content was
reported by Petrović et al. (2006).
Average production of milk fat in whole lactation was 230.24 kg.
According to regions, the highest production of milk fat was recorded in
