Non-Genetic Evaluation of Productive and Reproductive Traits for Pure Jersey Cattle at Wolaita Sodo Dairy Farm, South Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate non-genetic effects on milk production and reproductive performance of Jersey cattle breed using general linear model procedure (SAS software version 9.4). The data was obtained from a state farm, located in Wolaita Sodo, south Ethiopia. The least-square mean values of production traits such as daily milk yield (DMY) and lactation length (LL) were 13.52± 0.16 kg and 352.89±0.94 days, respectively. In addition, the least-square means for reproductive traits of the age at first calving (AFC) and calving interval (CI) were 952.40± 0.99 days and 490.01±0.90 days, respectively. Season had highly significant (p<0.0001) effect only on daily milk yield. Calving year had a significant (p<0.01) effect on daily milk yield, lactation length, age at first calving, and calving interval, and dam parity also had significant (p<0.01) effects on daily milk yield, lactation length, and calving interval. This study concluded that there was high non-genetic effect of calving year, seasons, and parity on daily milk yield and all fixed factors affect lactation length except season. The major non-genetic factors that affect reproductive traits is calving year. Hence, improvement of productive and reproductive performance of the pure Jersey cattle population at Wolaita Sodo dairy farm is possible by providing better environment and management all the year round.