Phenotypic and genetic parameters of milk traits of Fogera cattle in Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was conducted to estimate the production performance and the genetic parameters for milk traits of Fogera cattle at Andassa Livestock Research center. Data collected on milk production traits from 2000 to 2017 from Fogera cattle herds maintained at Andassa Livestock Research Center were used. The General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS was used to analyze the least-squares mean for phenotypic traits, and Wombat software was used to estimate genetic parameters and breeding values. The performance milk traits analyzed include daily milk yield (DMY), lactation milk yield (LMY), and lactation length (LL). Dam parity, calving year and season were the main fixed effects considered for performance estimation of the milk traits.

The overall means for DMY, LMY, and LL obtained were 1.98±0.40 liters, 482±0.02 liters, and 238±0.3 days. The direct heritability estimates for DMY, LMY, and LL of Fogera cows were 0.33±0.27, 0.27±0.001, and 0.20±0.23. The repeatability estimates for DMY, LMY and LL were 0.33, 0.55, and 0.48. The phenotypic correlation for DMY-LMY, DMY-LL, and LMY-LL were 0.49, 0.48, and 0.55, while the genetic correlations were 0.53, 0.46, and 0.53 The mean breeding values for DMY, LMY and LL were 0.016 liters, 18.77. liters and 4.30 days. LMY increased by 0.86 liters/year while the DMY and LL decreased by 0.0008 liters/year and 0.17 days/year. Both, heritability and repeatability estimates for milk production traits indicate the presence of moderate variation within the studied cattle population and thus selection could be used as the best tool of genetic improvement of Fogera cattle for milk production.