Productive Performance of Crossbred Dairy Cattle

AbstractThis study was conducted to evaluate the productive performances of crossbreddairy cattle at Holetta agricultural research center’s dairy farm. A total of 6685performance records were used and analyzed to determine the effect of period ofcalving, season of calving, parity and genetic group. Parameters used as indicator ofproductive performances were lactation milk yield (LMY), daily milk yield (DMY)and lactation length (LL). The GLM procedure of SAS 2004 was used for analysis.The overall least square means and standard errors for Lactation milk yield (LMY),daily milk yield (DMY) and lactation length (LL) were 2204.05 ± 21.12 kg, 6.88 ±0.05 kg and 326.69 ± 2.03 days, respectively. Result of fixed effect analysis indicatedthat calving period, genetic group and parity were significantly (p<0.001) influencedall productive traits. LMY, DMY, and LL were sensitive to seasonal variation.Comparisons among the crosses revealed a clear-cut difference among the geneticgroups. Milk production in the first generation crosses increased more compared tosecond generations. There were marked decline in performance among 50% F1(Borena dam x Holstein Friesian sire), F2 (F1 dam x F1 sire) and F3 (F2 dam x F2sire) from 2203kg of milk to 1697 and 1522 kg, respectively. The 75% firstgeneration was superior LMY compared with other genetic groups and producedabout 34.2 %, 74.3%, 94.3% and 45.9% more milk than 50% F1, F2, F3 and 75%second generations, respectively. The higher milk yield of 75% first generation and50% F1 crosses from other genetic groups could be associated with higher heterosiseffect in F1, higher milk gene in 75% and longer lactation length. Based on theproductive performances evaluation, the results of LMY, DMY, and LL for highgrade (75% first generation) in the present study revealed that performances werecontinued to increase with increasing proportion of exotic gene