Evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of Holstein Friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in Malawi
Over the last two decades, dairy cattle management in Malawi has been oriented towards increasing milk yield per animal. One consequence of this process has been reliance on Holstein Friesian bull semen from temperate regions. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the performance of Holste...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2004
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/4051 |
| _version_ | 1855515003134672896 |
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| author | Chagunda, Mizeck G.G. Bruns, E.W. King, J.M. Wollny, C.B.A. |
| author_browse | Bruns, E.W. Chagunda, Mizeck G.G. King, J.M. Wollny, C.B.A. |
| author_facet | Chagunda, Mizeck G.G. Bruns, E.W. King, J.M. Wollny, C.B.A. |
| author_sort | Chagunda, Mizeck G.G. |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Over the last two decades, dairy cattle management in Malawi has been oriented towards increasing
milk yield per animal. One consequence of this process has been reliance on Holstein Friesian bull
semen from temperate regions. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the performance of
Holstein Friesian cows on large-scale farms in Malawi. A data set of 60 640 test-day records from
Holstein Friesian cows in first, second and third lactation from three large-scale dairies in Malawi
were utilized. Fixed effects of herd, year and season of calving were tested. (Co)variance components
were estimated through the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedure. Heritability, genetic
and phenotypic correlations for milk yield, lactation length, age at first calving, and calving interval
were determined. In general, milk yield decreased over the years and there was significant (P<0.001)
variation in milk yield between herds. The genetic base, as indicated by the genetic trend, remained
almost constant in the studied period. This entails genotype by environment interaction, culminating
in the additive genetic effect not expressing itself fully in the phenotype. It is therefore apparent that
considerable improvement could be achieved by improving the production environment. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace4051 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2004 |
| publishDateRange | 2004 |
| publishDateSort | 2004 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| publisherStr | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace40512024-11-15T08:52:05Z Evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of Holstein Friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in Malawi Chagunda, Mizeck G.G. Bruns, E.W. King, J.M. Wollny, C.B.A. Over the last two decades, dairy cattle management in Malawi has been oriented towards increasing milk yield per animal. One consequence of this process has been reliance on Holstein Friesian bull semen from temperate regions. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the performance of Holstein Friesian cows on large-scale farms in Malawi. A data set of 60 640 test-day records from Holstein Friesian cows in first, second and third lactation from three large-scale dairies in Malawi were utilized. Fixed effects of herd, year and season of calving were tested. (Co)variance components were estimated through the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedure. Heritability, genetic and phenotypic correlations for milk yield, lactation length, age at first calving, and calving interval were determined. In general, milk yield decreased over the years and there was significant (P<0.001) variation in milk yield between herds. The genetic base, as indicated by the genetic trend, remained almost constant in the studied period. This entails genotype by environment interaction, culminating in the additive genetic effect not expressing itself fully in the phenotype. It is therefore apparent that considerable improvement could be achieved by improving the production environment. 2004-10 2011-06-30T16:51:30Z 2011-06-30T16:51:30Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/4051 en Limited Access Cambridge University Press Chagunda, M.G.G., Bruns, E.W., King, J.M. and Wollny, C.B.A. 2004. Evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of Holstein Friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in Malawi. Journal of Agricultural Science 142: 1–7 |
| spellingShingle | Chagunda, Mizeck G.G. Bruns, E.W. King, J.M. Wollny, C.B.A. Evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of Holstein Friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in Malawi |
| title | Evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of Holstein Friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in Malawi |
| title_full | Evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of Holstein Friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in Malawi |
| title_fullStr | Evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of Holstein Friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in Malawi |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of Holstein Friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in Malawi |
| title_short | Evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of Holstein Friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in Malawi |
| title_sort | evaluation of the breeding strategy for milk yield of holstein friesian cows on large scale dairy farms in malawi |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/4051 |
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