Crossbreeding of Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, and Sahiwal Cattle for Annual and Lifetime Milk Yield in the Lowland Tropics of Kenya

Abstract

Records from 1577 cows born from 1973 to 1983 on a ranch in lowland Kenya were analyzed for age at first calving, lactation length, lactational milk yield, calving interval, annual milk yield, and, for cows born from 1973 to 1979, number of calvings, productive lifetime in the herd, and lifetime milk yield. Partial lifetime yield (< or = 4 lactations) was studied for all cows. Rotational crosses of Ayrshire and Sahiwal, the crosses between them (interbreds), and the crosses sired by Brown Swiss from the rotational crosses were compared. The Ayrshire-sired rotational crosses yielded 4.8% more milk during a 19-d longer lactation and with a calving interval that was 14 d longer than those sired by Sahiwal. Milk yield for completed lactations of interbred cows was 4.5% less, and milk yield of Brown Swiss crosses was 9.5% more, than the average of the rotational crosses. Lifetime milk yields were 48% greater for the rotational crosses sired by Ayrshire than for those sired by Sahiwal. Interbreds yielded 34% less than the average of the rotational crosses. Over partial lifetimes, the rotational crosses sired by Ayrshire yielded 45% more milk than those sired by Sahiwal; the interbreds and the crosses sired by Brown Swiss yielded 34% less and 62% more milk, respectively, than the mean of the rotational crosses.

Study on Friesian Herds Raised in Egypt and Germany – I. Estimate of non-genetic effects and genetic parameters

“…The animals will then be set dry for 2 months as prepartu-ration for the following lactation. Actual mean for calving interval (CI) is in close agreement with that reported by EVERETT et al (1966) on Guernsey cows (392 days) and THORPE et al (1994) on Sahiwal cows (397 days).…”

“…In Egypt, the present means of IMY and 305-dMY were higher than those reported by KHATTAB and SULTAN (1990) on Friesian cows in Egypt, which were 756 and 2484 kg, respectively. Also, the actual mean of 305-dMY was higher than those reported by THORPE et al (1994) in Kenya and AMIN et al (1996) in Hungary on Friesian cows, being 2826 and 4525 kg, respectively. The present mean of milk yield is in close agreement to that observed by PTAK et al (1993) on Holstein Friesian cows in Canada (4699 kg), is lower than that reported by BAFFOUR-AWUAH et al, (1996) with Holstein Friesian in England, being 6078 kg.…”

Milk and fat production of crossbred Holstein-Gir cows (Bos taurus taurus-Bos taurus indicus) in the agreste region of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco

“…Madalena et al (1990) also reported poor performance in inter se crossbred cattle but did not dismiss the possibility of looking for new "synthetic breeds", although they suggest that intense selection should be practiced to compensate for recombination losses. Thorpe et al (1994) reported that the performance of inter se crossbred cattle was always worse than that of any other type of crossing and recommended that if crossbreeding is the basis of genetic improvement programs for dairy production in the tropics selection should be based on milk production per unit of metabolic weight, particularly in systems where the small farm is the basis of the dairy cattle industry. Pedersen and Christensen (1989), working with crossbred Red Danish, Finnish Ayrshire, Danish Friesian and Holstein Friesian cattle, concluded that the positive effects of heterosis reached in the F 1 generation were lost by the negative effects of recombination in the following generations.…”

Cross-breeding cattle for milk production in the tropics: achievements, challenges and opportunities

“…Katpatal, 1977;Thorpe, Morris and Kang'ethe, 1994;Tadesse and Dessie, 2003;Demeke, Neser and Schoeman, 2004a;Tadesse et al, 2006). The smallholder sector in the tropics, which constitutes the majority of farmers, is at times unable to raise the levels of management and nutrition in line with the requirements of the new genotypes (Kahi, 2002).…”

“…With regard to milk production, group 2 (463 observations) performed significantly better than group 1 in the following traits: AFC (1019 versus 1042 days), MYL (2843 versus 2662 kg) and annual lactation yield (2616 versus 2503 kg), but had significantly longer CIs (398 versus 390 days) than group 1. In a follow-up study, Thorpe, Morris and Kang'ethe (1994) analysed lifetime performance of the two groups and of the cross between them (interbreeds). LMY was 48 percent higher for group 2 (67 percent Ayrshire and 33 percent Sahiwal genes group) than for group 1.…”