Evaluation of Milk Composition in Zebu × HF Crossbred Dairy Cows in Different Seasons and Stage of Lactations in Amanuel Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

A study was carried out on lactating crossbred dairy cows with the objectives of evaluating the effect of season and stage of lactation on milk quality in East Gojjam Zone of Amanuel town, Ethiopia. Milk quality was analyzed by profiling major components; protein, fat, lactose, solid-not-fat (SNF) and ash. Milk samples were collected from a total of 60 crossbred dairy cow’s (30 milk samples in winter and 30 milk samples in summer seasons) and immediately analysed using milk analyzer machine. Based on laboratory result average milk composition of fat, SNF, TS, protein, lactose and ash percentage of milk in winter season were 4.45 ± 0.26, 7.47 ± 0.38, 11.92 ± 0.40, 2.7 ± 0.05, 4.3 ± 0.07 and 0.6 ± 0.01, respectively. In summer season the milk composition were 3.58 ± 0.23, 8.08 ± 0.13, 11.66 ± 0.36, 3.01 ± 0.06, 4.44 ± 0.07 and 0.66 ± 0.01, respectively with overall average value of 4.12 ± 0.26% fat, 7.77 ± 0.14% SNF, 11.89 ± 0.40% TS, 2.83 ± 0.06% protein, 4.28 ± 0.08% lactose and 0.63 ± 0.01% ash. There were significant differences in all compositions of milk except in TS content of milk between seasons. But there is no significant difference (p ≥ 0.05) in all compositions of milk among different lactation stages except in protein content during winter season i.e., during winter season, higher protein content result was recorded in 3rd stage of lactation (2.84 ± 0.06) than 2nd stage of lactation (2.59 ± 0.10). Therefore, the qualities of milk from the Zebu × HF crossbred cows met the required standard. It was revealed that the Zebu × HF crossbred animal was the best performer regarding the milk composition and quality.