Abstract
Article Details: Received: 2020-10-23 | Accepted: 2020-11-27 | Available online: 2021-01-31 https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2021.24.mi-prap.114-117 The objective of this study was to analyse eight milk yield and longevity traits in dependence on feeding (grazing) system. Data of purebred Slovak Spotted dairy cows (35,812 heads) culled in the period between 2006 and 2019 were evaluated. Only herds those feeding (grazing) system was known were taken into account. Dairy cows were assigned to four groups: (1) heifers not grazed, cows not grazed (17,628 heads), (2) heifers grazed, cows not grazed (13,056 heads), (3) heifers not grazed, cows grazed (156 heads) and (4) heifers grazed, cows grazed (4,972 heads). The highest average 305-day milk yield (6,139.22 kg) and lifetime milk yield (18,606.78 kg) were found in animals of group (1). Contrariwise, longevity traits were found more favourable in animals of group (4). Their productive life was by 102.78 days longer and average parity was by 0.14 higher in comparison to group (1). The differences between groups were found significant. Keywords: milk yield, longevity, grazing, heifers, cows, Slovak Spotted cattle References Bujko, J. et al. (2020). Changes in production and reproduction traits in population of the Slovak spotted cattle. Acta fytotechnica et zootechnica, 23(3), 161–166, https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2020.23.03.161-166. Canji, V. et al. (2008). Effect of conformation traits on longevity of cows of Slovak simmental breed . Slovak Journal of Animal Science, 41(2), 83–90. Fuerst–Waltl, B. et al. (2019). Mountain pasturing of rearing stock reduces the culling rist as dairy cows. Animal , 13(1), 209–212, doi: 10.1017/S1751731118001465. Krogmeier, D. et al. (2015). The effect of alpine pasturing of heifers on the longevity and on different yield traits of cows in Simmental and Brown Swiss cattle. Zuchtungskunde, 87(2), 107–119. Petrovic, M. et al. (2009). The effect of systematic factors on milk yield in Simmental cows over complete lactations. Biotechnology in Animal Husbandry , 25(1-2), 61–71, DOI: 10.2298/BAH0902061P . Ludovic-Toma, C. et al. (2017). Comparative study on production, reproduction and functional traits between Fleckvieh and Braunvieh cattle. Asian – Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences , 30(5), 666-671, doi: 10.5713/ajas.16.0588 . SAS Institute Inc.: SAS/STAT ® 9.2User’s Guide, Second Edition , Cary, NC USA, 2009. Strapak, P. et al. (2008). Effect of selected factors on the lenght of productive life of cows. S lovak Journal of Animal Science , 41(2), 77–82. Strapak, P. et al. (2010). Relation of the length of productive life and the body conformation traits in Slovak Simmental breed. Archives Animal Breeding , 53, 393–402. https://doi.org/10.5194/aab-53-393-2010
Highlights
Milk yield of Slovak Spotted dairy cows has been increasing in recent years (Bujko et al, 2020)
Petrovic et al (2009), who analysed population of Fleckvieh cows in Slovenia, reported age at first calving equal to 924.16 days, length of productive life equal to 1317 days, lifetime milk yield equal to 17,169 kg, 305-day milk yield equal to 5,719.05 kg, milk yield per productive day equal to 7.66 kg
The group (2) i.e. cows grazed as heifers, but not grazed when become cows accounted for 13,056 heads
Summary
Milk yield of Slovak Spotted dairy cows has been increasing in recent years (Bujko et al, 2020). Strapák et al (2010), who analysed data of 118,646 Slovak Spotted cows culled in the period between 1995 and 2005, reported length of productive life equal to 1,451 days. To aim of the current study, effect of pasture on lifetime performance and longevity traits were the object of interest in study of Fuerst-Waltl et al (2019) who analysed data of 871,287 Fleckvieh cows. According to these authors, cows that were grazed as heifers had length of productive life by 60 days longer and risk of culling by 15% lower than cows that were not grazedas heifers. Kragmeier et al (2015), who analysed data of 8,541 Simmental dairy cows from Alps region, reported that cows that were grazed as heifers had productive life by 92 days longer and lifetime milk yield by 13.6% higher than cows that were not grazed as heifers
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