Correlation between extremes age at first calving with their productive and reproductive performances in Indian Murrah buffaloes (Bubalusbubalis)

Abstract

The dairy economics is greatly affected by the age at first calving as it is an important indicator of precocity and fertility. The present study was carried out to deduce the important productive and reproductive performance traits related to their extremes age at first calving in Murrah buffaloes. Recorded the data of reproductive and productive performances trait of Murrah buffaloes maintained at the animal farm section, ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar, India during the period of last fifteen year (2001-15). The data of 2753 buffaloes were screened out, on the basis of age at first calving (AFC) categorized into two extreme group. Only 88 out of 2753 buffaloes showed the extremes AFC and categorized as group 1 (n=17 in first parity, 12 in second parity) and group 2 (n=71 in first parity, 36 in second parity) having £36 and ³48 months of AFC respectively. The extreme AFC with their performance traits viz. service period, calving interval, dry period, lactation length and milk yields were included in the analysis. The mean service period, calving interval, dry period was lower in group 1 whereas lactation length and milk yields no differences in between groups. The low milk production was observed in first lactation irrespective to their groups. The extreme AFC was not significantly associated with their performance traits (service period, calving interval, dry period, lactation length and milk yields) in both within and between groups (p >0.05) whereas service period significantly associated with calving intervals (p less than 0.01).