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.
