Phenotypic parameters of the mother stock of the Jersey breed

Abstract

Recently, in connection with the transition to an industrial approach in animal husbandry and an increase in demand for planned breeds bred in Ukraine, high requirements have arisen for their productivity, feed cost, suitability for machine milking and other characteristics. Breeding of the Jersey breed can serve as an important reserve for the further development of dairy cattle breeding in Ukraine. The Jersey breed is characterized by high productivity and is the most fat-milk breed in the world, with high feed value and good technological properties of the udder. The purpose of the research was to evaluate the phenotypic parameters of the Jersey cattle herd and to study the influence of the duration of the service period on the efficiency of milk production. 1,331 head of breeding stock of the Jersey breed are kept in the APNVP “Vizit” of the Khmelnytskyi district of the Vinnytsia region, of which 68.4 % are cows. Youngsters are rated elite-record and elite – 99.3 %. Up to 3 lactations are kept in a herd of Jersey cows. Hope per cow is 5819 kg of milk, with a fat content of 6.05 % and a protein content of 4.2 %. The milk productivity of cows exceeds the minimum requirements for the Jersey breed by 83 % for the first lactation, by 82.1 % for the second, and by 73.1 % for the third. The hope for 305 days of lactation in cows with a service period of 90 days in the second lactation is 11.8 % less than the data of cows with a service period of 120 days, for the third lactation – by 11.4 %. The average daily survival of cows with a service period of 120 days was lower than that of control cows by 7.0 %. The efficiency of using cows when extending the service period beyond the 90-day limit recommended by experts reduces the milk productivity of cows. The ratio of fat to protein is higher in Jerseys by 0.3, fat to dry skimmed milk residue by 0.2, and protein to dry skimmed milk residue by 0.06.