Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T00:53:35.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The use of station and field tests for the improvement of milking performance in dairy cattle. I. Variation in milk yield and butterfat in test station records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

C. J. M. Hinks
C. J. M. Hinks
Affiliation:
Cattle Section, Institute of Animal Husbandry, Rolighedsvej 25, Copenhagen, Denmark
Get access

Extract

A study of variation in milk yield and butterfat has been undertaken, using the test station records of almost 5 000 first-calf cows of three dairy breeds.

The general object of the investigation was to provide a background for a more comprehensive examination of the important productive characteristics of dairy cattle, and of the use of different sire-testing procedures for their improvement; the specific object was to consider the possible causes of large sire components and heritability estimates that have been observed in all analyses of test station production data, and the reasons why the station and field tests of a bull do not always correspond.

Large heritability estimates for milk yield, fat yield and fat percentage were obtained in the Danish Red and Black Pied breeds, but the corresponding estimates in the Jerseys (0·31, 0·48 and 0·58 respectively) were similar in size to the values normally obtained for these traits in field data.

The pre-selection of heifer recruits to the stations, and breed differences in the intensity of selection applied to the productive characteristics, were considered and dismissed as causes of abnormal sire components, in the light of results obtained from field data which indicated that the heritability of milk yield in the Jerseys was not lower than in the other two breeds (0·26, 0·37 and 0·36 in Danish Reds, Black Pied and Jersey).

It was suggested that differences between records made in test stations and records made in farmers' herds may be caused by differences in milking efficiency, by differences in culling practices in the two environments, and by the effects of age, season at calving and contemporaneity. Other investigations have established that these factors may have a large influence on the variance components of the production traits, and all of them would repay further investigation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1968 , pp. 93 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1968

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barker, J. S. F. and Robertson, Alan. 1966. Genetic and phenotypic parameters for the first three lactations in Friesian cows. Aram. Prod. 8: 221–240.Google Scholar
Brumby, P. J. 1956. The milking characteristics of identical twin cattle. Proc. N.Z. Soc. Anim. Prod. 16: 89–94.Google Scholar
Brumby, P. J. 1961. The genetic basis of milk flow rates in cattle. VIIIth int. Congr. Anim. Prod. [Hamburg 1961], III (final report) 171–173.Google Scholar
Gates, G. E. and Shiue, C. 1962. The analysis of variance of the S-stage hierarchical classification. Biometrics 18: 529–536.Google Scholar
Gower, J. C. 1962. Variance component estimation for unbalanced hierarchical classifications. Biometrics 18: 537–542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinks, C. J. M. 1966. Selection practices in dairy herds. I. First lactation performance and survival to the second lactation. Anim. Prod. 8: 467–481.Google Scholar
Hofmeyr, J. 1955. A study of Danish and Swedish progeny testing methods for dairy bulls. K. LantbrksHögskol. Ann. 22: 425–488.Google Scholar
Johansson, I. 1954. An analysis of data from the Danish progeny testing stations. Z. Tierz. ZüchtBiol. 63: 105–126CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, I. L. 1953. Bull progeny testing in Denmark. Proc. Brit. Soc. Anim. Prod. 106–121.Google Scholar
Mason, L. L. and Robertson, Alan. 1956. The progeny testing of dairy bulls at different levels of production. J. agric. Sci. Camb. 47: 367–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, E. O. 1962. Afkomsprøver med Tyre 1945–60. Beretn. forsøgslab. København. No. 333.Google Scholar
Nielsen, E. O. and Hinks, C. J. M. 1967. Malkbarhed og ydelse. Beretn. førsøgslab. København. No. 357. 48 pp.Google Scholar
Nielsen, S. M. 1965. Hvorledes rekrutterer dansk kvægavlsforeninger deres tyremateriale, og hvilke afgangsprocenter og -årsager kan der règnes med for tyre i forskellige aldersklasse. Dissertation, Copenhagen. 26 pp.Google Scholar
Robertson, Alan and Mason, I. L. 1956. The progeny testing of dairy bulls: a comparison of special station and field results. J. agric. Sci. Carro. 47: 376–381.Google Scholar
Robertson, Alan. 1966. A mathematical model of the culling process in dairy cattle. Anim. Prod. 8:95–108.Google Scholar
Touchberry, R. W., Rottensten, K. and Andersen, H. 1960. A comparison of dairy sire progeny tests made at special Danish testing stations with test made in farmer herds. J. Dairy Sci. 43: 529–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venge, O. 1956. Genetic differences in feed utilisation in dairy cattle. Z. Tierz. ZüchtBiol., 67: 147–158.Google Scholar