Milk yield of cross-bred buffalo under two production systems in the Amazonian region of Brazil

Abstract

This study was conducted at the Agroforestry Research Center of EMBRAPA (CPAFRO), Rondônia, Brazil, to determine the effects of various factors on milk yield (MY) of crosss-bred buffalo (Murrah, Mediterranean and Jafarabadi) under two production systems. Production system one (PS1) corresponded to the period from 1984 to 1998 where animals (4471 observation) were milked once a day and received only pasture without supplementation. Production system two (PS2) corresponded to the period from 1999 to 2002 where animals (458 observations) were milked once or twice daily with concentrate supplementation to pasture. Fixed variables were contemporary group (CG), genetic group (GG), Sire (S) and Dam (D). Age (days) at calving (AC), weight at calving (WC) and tast day (TD) were included as linear covariates. Data were analyzed using PROC GLM (SAS, 2005). Results showed that average milk yield for PS1 and PS2 were 3.24 and 4.31 kg/day, respectively. With the exception of WC, in PS2, all other factors significantly affected milk yield in buffalo on two production systems. In PS1, the highest milk yield was for the genetic group 7/8M and the lowest for genetic group 1/2M. For PS2, the highest milk yield was for genetic group 3/4M and the lowest for genetic group 7/8M. Using the significant covariates, the following regression equations were developed to estimate milk yield for buffalo under the two production systems: MY(PS1) = 1.99719578 + 0.00409672WC - 0.00012372AC - 0.00616303DC; MY(PS2) = 3.650977 + 0.000462760AC - 0.010300571DC.

Keywords

• Amazonian, Buffalo, Genetic group, Test-day