Productive and Reproductive Performance of Syrian Shami Cows

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to characteristic productive and reproductive traits of native Shami cows in Syria and to study the effect of nongenetic factors on their productive and reproductive traits. In this study, 2654 records were collected on 605 cows from 1980 to 2010 of Deir al-Hajar station in Syria. Data were analysed using the General Liner Model (XLSTATE. 2019).The least squares means for age at first calving (AFC), calving interval (CI), total milk yield (TMY), daily milk yield (DMY), lactation period (LP) and dry period (DP) were 30.9±0.16 months, 454±0.16 days, 1503±0.16 kg, 9.1±0.16 kg, 163±0.16 days and 292±34 days, respectively.The results showed that year of birth had a significant (p<0.01) effect on age at first calving. While season of birth haven't significant effect on (AFC). Also, results showed that year of calving and parity had a significant (p<0.01) effect on all studied traits. Season of calving had significant (p<0.01) effect on all studied traits except for dry period.Improve management conditions and genetic improvement for Syrian native Shami cows could be improve reproductive performance that leads to increase milk yield and number of calvings of their cows.