Effects of calving year, season, and age on some lactation traits of Anatolian buffaloes reared at farmer conditions in Turkey

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of some environmental factors like calving year, season, buffalo cow age and village on some milk yield traits of Anatolian buffaloes, such as daily milk yield for lactation length (MYLL), total lactation milk yield (TLMY), lactation length (LL), and daily milk yield for calving interval (MYCI). 1838 milk yield records obtained from 851 Anatolian buffaloes reared under different environmental conditions from 2015 through 2019 within the scope of the Bartın Anatolian Buffalo Breeding Project were assessed. The least square means and standard errors for MYLL, TLMY, LL, and MYCI were 4.07  0.02 kg, 1078.6  7.54 kg, 263.83  1.16 days, and 2.75  0.03 kg, respectively. As a result of the study, the effects of village, calving year and age (P<0.001) and calving season (P<0.05) on MYLL; village, calving year and age (P<0.001) on TLMY; village, calving year and age (P<0.001) and calving season (P<0.05) on MYCI; calving age, village (P<0.001) and calving year (P<0.05) on LL were found statistically significant. Moreover, high positive phenotypic correlations between TLMY and MYLL (r = 0.78, P<0.001) and LL and TLMY (r = 0.67, P<0.001) were estimated. The results revealed that milk production traits might be improved by considering calving season and age in breeding studies and stud-selection programs in Anatolian buffaloes. Besides, it will remarkably contribute to the number of limited studies that have focused on this breed.