Genetic evaluation of Ethiopian Boran cattle and their crosses with Holstein Friesian for milk constituent traits in central Ethiopia

Abstract

Breed additive and non-additive effects, and genetic parameters of milk fat, protein, solids not fat (SNF) and total solids (TS) percents, were estimated in Ethiopian Boran cattle and their crosses with Friesian in central Ethiopia. Ethiopian Boran cattle were consistently superior (P 0.05) in milk constituents. It was apparent, therefore, that as the exotic gene level increased the percentages of the milk constituents declined significantly. The individual additive genetic breed difference for milk composition traits were all significant (P 0.05) for all traits except for fat percent. Heritabilities of fat, protein, SNF and TS percents for Ethiopian Boran were 0.49 ±0.03, 0.26 ± 0.05, 0.46 ± 0.04 and 0.45 ± 0.04, respectively. The corresponding estimates for crosses were 0.32 ± 0.04, 0.49 ± 0.03, 0.39 ± 0.04 and 0.41 ± 0.04, respectively. Within Ethiopian Boran breed selection accompanied by crossing should enormously improve these traits in crossbreds under such production system. Key words: Genetic evaluation, genetic parameter, Ethiopian Boran, Holstein Friesian