Breeding efficiency of Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes at ICAR-CIRB, Hisar

Abstract

Present study was conducted to investigate breeding efficiency (BE) in Murrah and Nili-Ravi buffaloes maintained at ICAR-CIRB Hisar and sub campus Nabha, Punjab, respectively. A total 5955 production and reproduction records of 679 Murrah and 501 Nili-Ravi from the year 1983 to 2017 were utilized to calculate BE using Wilcox and Tomar methods. The effects of various non-genetic factors like age at first calving, season of first calving, period of first calving and lactation completed on BE was studied. The results indicated that the overall leastsquare means for BE in Murrah and Nili-Ravi were estimated as 80.09 to 82.97% and 79.57 to 82.50% by Wilcox method while it was 76.62 to 78.12% and 76.04 to 77.73% by Tomar method, respectively. Both Wilcox as well as Tomar method indicated that the effect of season of first calving was highly significant on BE in Murrah and Nili- Ravi buffaloes with highest BE in rainy and lowest in winter season. A change in BE due to period of calving depends on the management practices followed during that particular period of time. Breeding efficiency linearly increased with the increase in number of lactations. Therefore, our efforts should be towards improvement in breeding efficiency that leads to better reproductive performance, thereby improve overall efficiency of the dairy farm.