Milk Composition and Quality of Sahiwal – Friesian Crossbred Cow Studied in Malaysia

Six groups of Sahiwal-Friesian crossbred cows, namely M50-1, M50-2, M50-3, M56, M63 and M75-1 were evaluated. In total 180 cows were used and milk collected was evaluated for composition and quality. The effect of genotypes was significant (P≤0.05) only for titrable acidity (TA) and milk yield (MY). The M50-1 had the highest milk yield per day (8.73 ± 1.65 kg) but this was not significantly different from the yields of M50-3, M56 and M75-1 (7.06 ± 0.84, 7.06 ± 0.96, 7.70 ± 0.82 kg), respectively. Lactation stage had significant (P≤0.05) effect on milk yield, fat content, solids-not fat (SNF) content, total solid (TS) content, moisture content and specific gravity (Sp. Gr). Fat content at early lactation was significantly (P≤0.01) lower than at middle and late lactation (3.69 vs 4.27 and 4.50, respectively). SNF content for middle lactation was significantly lower (P≤0.05) than that at early and late lactations. At late lactation, TS and moisture contents were significantly (P≤0.05) higher than those at early lactation. The range of milk composition and quality such as fat (3.96 4.50%), SNF (9.02 9.40%), TS (13.01-13.81%), moisture (86.26 87.07%), Sp.Gr. (1.0301.031), pH (6.74 6.91), TA (0.13 0.15%), MBRT (6.50 -7.40 h) belonged to normal range. M50-1, M50-3, M56 and M75-1 had higher test day milk yield. The optimum level of Friesian inheritance in combination with Sahiwal for MY appeared to be 75%, 56% and 50% with selection for milk production. The composition and quality of milk from the Sahiwal Friesian crossbred cows met the required standard.