Milk production and reproduction performance of Murrah buffaloes of Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The data pertaining to variable production and reproduction traits of Murrah buffaloes (1980 lactation records of 698 Murrah buffaloes) were collected from the Central Cattle Breeding Farm, Alamadhi, Tamil Nadu, India. The overall leastsquares means (± SE) for peak yield, days to attain peak yield, 305-day milk yield, lactation length, lactation milk yield, service period, calving interval and dry period were 8.87 ± 0.05 kg, 53.4 ± 0.8 days, 1804.9 ± 14.7 kg, 297.8 ± 1.9 days, 1855.6 ± 16.1 kg, 225.0 ± 5.5, 532.8 ± 5.5 and 230.2 ± 4.9 days, respectively. Period of calving had a highly signifi cant (P<0.01) effect on all the traits studied except days to attain peak yield, where it had only a signifi cant (P<0.05) effect. Season of calving had a signifi cant (P<0.05) effect on peak yield and lactation milk yield and a highly signifi cant (P<0.01) effect on days to attain peak yield, 305-day milk yield, milk yield per day of lactation and all the reproduction traits studied. The lowest calving interval was observed in south-west monsoon calvers, and they differed signifi cantly (P<0.05) from winter and summer calvers. Parity had a highly signifi cant effect (P<0.01) on all the traits studied. Pairwise comparison revealed that the lactation milk yield was lowest in fi rst parity and differed signifi cantly (P<0.05) from other parities. In general, the reproduction traits such as service period, calving interval and dry period were slightly higher than those observed in the home tract of the Murrah buffalo and hence better breeding management and introduction of genetic evaluation programmes are needed for genetic improvement of these traits.