Open AccessExaminations connected with productive life in Hungarian Holstein Friesian populations
Author(s) -
Attila Berta,
Béla Béri
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
acta agraria debreceniensis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2416-1640
DOI - 10.34101/actaagrar/27/3098
Subject(s) - lactation , herd , zoology , biology , productivity , milk production , population , offspring , production (economics) , holstein cattle , dairy cattle , microbiology and biotechnology , demography , pregnancy , genetics , economics , sociology , macroeconomics
In Hungary, an intensive dairy population has developed in the last few decades as the result of upgrading to Holstein-Friesian. Intensive milk production, adjusted with housing and feeding, unfavorably affected secondary traits. The number of days between two calvings has increased remarkably and productive lifetime has decreased drastically. In the interest of profitable milk production, it is important that cows should be able to stay in the herd as long as possible, in order to have great lifetime productivity.The aim of this paper was to compare the production and pedigree of cows with eight or more lactations to cows which were culled after their first lactation.It can be stated that cows with longer herd lives produced more milk in their first lactation than those which were culled after their first lactation. When analyzing the pedigree effect of sires, this could not be proven, although some bulls, mainly of Hungarian origin, appeared at a higher frequency. In the analysis of the effect of dams, it was found that many of the offspring of the cows with longer herd lives had similarly great lifetime productivity. Correlation between herdlife and milk production quantity traits was found to be mild or stronger (r>0,60), while according to our analysis, there is no correlation between herdlife and milk production quality traits.