Performance of murrah, surti, nili-ravi buffaloes and their crosses in a large scale farm in the intermediate zone of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate productive and reproductive performance of Murrah, Surti, Nili-Ravi buffaloes and their crosses in a large scale farm in the intermediate zone of Sri Lanka. Records on age at first calving, calving interval, lactation length, dry period, lactation number, milk yield per day, milk yield per lactation, and birth weight were collected for the period of 1993-2013 from a large scale farm in the intermediate zone of Sri Lanka and analyzed using the statistical package SAS 9.1. The least square mean and standard error for production traits of total milk yield, lactation length, calving interval and birth weight were 1187.65 ± 21.08 kg/lac, 269.08 ± 2.50 days, 469.46 ± 4.86 days, and 27.67 ± 0.12 kg respectively. The least square mean and standard error of age at first calving and dry period were 48.38 ± 0.30 months and 178 ± 4.33 days respectively. Milk yield was not significantly influenced by genetic and non-genetic factors. Lactation length was influenced by year of calving, year of dry off, dry period and sex of the calves. Calving interval was significantly influenced by breed and parity. Both birth weight and age at first calving were significantly influenced by breed and year of calving. Dry period was significantly influenced only by lactation length. It could be concluded that the absence of breed differences for the major productive trait milk yield is not a good indication of breed improvement. Corrective measures should be taken as soon as possible to rectify the shortcoming through planned breeding and selection, improved feeding, housing and health care management.