Daughter performance based buffalo bull ranking for boosting milk production in Pakistan

Abstract

The first lactation milk yield records of 2329 daughters of 180 bulls, (11 batches) during 1983-2005 were used in this study. BLUP breeding values for male and female were computed using DFREML. The fixed effects like herd-year-season and batch number of bulls had significant effect on milk yield as determined by HARVEY Model-1. In addition to these fixed effects, age at first calving was included in the model as covariate to estimate the BLUP breeding values (EBV) for milk yield. The year-wise least square means of milk yield for Nili Ravi buffaloes showed a sharp increase from 1984 to 1989 and then a significant yearly variation with the slight decrease in overall milk production under field conditions at private farmers door step. Among these candidate bulls 92 bulls were positive for milk yield EBV. The overall milk production was (Mean±S.E) 2481.82±493.33 Kg. The heritability of milk yield was 0.15. There is wide variation over the years making the over all regression line (Y = - 146944 + 74.349X) for milk yield negative. This emphasizes to review the policy of semen usage and production of candidate young bulls for future generations. Recently born male calves had better breeding values showing the positive regression line ( Y = 142.77 + 22.065X).

Keywords

• Animal model, Rural population, Progeny testing, Nili-Ravi buffalo