Determination of milk yield potential using an accurate method is essential for assessing nutritional requirements, evaluation of genetic potential, lamb growth and survival, management decisions and improving performance traits of sheep flocks. Exogenous oxytocin injection is applied to estimate milk secretion rate in sheep. Oxytocin is a neurohormone produced in the hypothalamo-neurohypophysi...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of fat supplementation for enhancing milk conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in early lactation without affecting ruminal fermentation. 24 Holstein dairy cows were assigned to a completely randomized design employing a 2 × 4 factorial arrangement. Factors were particle size (15 and 25 mm) and two different sources of alfalfa supplemented with and wit...

Daily milk, fat and protein yield and amount of somatic cells in cow milk are very important factors that influence milk performance traits. An association between polymorphisms in the kappa casein (CSN3) gene and milk production, composition and technical properties has been previously reported; however, this type of information is not available for the bovine β-carotene oxygenase 2 (BCO2) gen...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of replacing progesterone injections by progesterone vaginal inserts on productive and reproductive parameters of lactating cows with reproductive problems after prolonged periods of heat stress. Fifteen Holstein cows were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: 1) treated with two progesterone vaginal inserts (P4-INS); 2) treated with prog...

To determine the relationship between udder traits and peak milk yield, udder parameters of 203 Dehong crossbred dairy buffaloes were measured. The average peak milk yield (kg/day) of buffaloes was 9.60 ± 2.73, with average udder dimensions of 16.51 ± 10.05, 8.07 ± 3.26, 8.68 ± 3.92, 50.74 ± 8.82, 11.38 ± 3.08, 7.18 ± 2.18 and 7.73 ± 2.15 cm for udder depth, rear udder width, rear udder height,...

Sixteen Holstein cows in midlactation were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square design to determine the effect of replacing alfalfa neutral detergent fiber (NDF), with NDF from a combination of whole linted cottonseed, dried distillers grains, and wheat middlings. The four diets were a basal control diet that was low in forage and fiber [(5.9 g of corn silage NDF and 6.1 g of alfalfa NDF/100 g of dry m...

data related to holstein dairy cattle from 1987 to 2004 were obtained from animal breeding center of iran to estimate the genetic and phenotypic trends. variance components and genetic parameters of the first lactation records were estimated using restricted maximum likelihood method and aireml algorithm through matvec program. animal breeding values were predicted through multiple-trait animal...

Dairy buffalo is the major source of milk production kept under peri-urban, low input production system. There is no practice of feeding animals according to requirements; exposing them to nutritional deficiency with the onset of pregnancy. It leads to a decline in milk yield, which compels the farmers to keep the animals un-bred. The present work was conducted to document, the post-conception ...

The study was conducted to estimate the genetic and phenotypic correlations among body measurements, body weight, kidding interval, kidding rate and milk yield in the different breeds of goat. Data was collected on 95 goats of three breeds (Jamunapari, Black Bengal and their crosses (Jamunapari×Black Bengal) through direct observation. The average body weight of Jamunapari goat was 34.75 ± 3.33...

A method of combining survey data and Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA) records to achieve low cost farm trials is presented. Farm trials and surveys of current practices and production responses are useful to identify yield gaps between expectations predicted from experimental findings and actual field results. Different management schemes can be ranked using subjective probabilities a...