Milk production and lactation length in Ankole cattle and Ankole crossbreds in Rwanda
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Milk production and lactation length in Ankole cattle and Ankole crossbreds in Rwanda Maximillian Manzi 1,2,3 & Lotta Rydhmer 1 & Martin Ntawubizi 3 & Claire D’Andre Hirwa 2 & Callixte Karege 3 & Erling Strandberg 1 Received: 13 February 2020 / Accepted: 20 May 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This study assessed daily milk yield (DMY), 100-day (MY100), and 305-day (MY305) milk yield, and lactation length (LL) in purebred Ankole cattle and Ankole crossbreds, and the influence of environmental factors on these traits. Milk yield data were obtained for 865 cows and 1234 lactations and analyzed using a mixed linear model. The overall least squares mean of DMY, MY100, and MY305 across breed groups was 2.7 L (N = 1234, SD = 1.7), 262 L (N = 959, SD = 176), and 759 L (N = 448, SD = 439), respectively, while the average lactation length was 256 days (N = 960, SD = 122). All factors included (breed group, season and year of calving, and parity) were significant for yield traits, except season of calving for MY305. First-parity cows had the lowest milk production, and fourth-parity cows the highest. For all traits, pure Ankole cows had the lowest milk yield. Among the crossbreds, there was no significant difference between Ankole × Friesian, Ankole-Jersey mother × Sahiwal sire, and AnkoleSahiwal mother × Jersey sire, or between Ankole × Sahiwal and Ankole-Sahiwal mother × Sahiwal sire. It was concluded that Ankole crosses with Friesian or Jersey can be beneficial, even under a management system of limited nutrition as in Rwanda. Keywords Breed groups. Crossbreeding, Milk yield
Introduction Livestock breeding programs play an important role in expansion of the agricultural sector, through improving the productivity of individual animals. In contrast to purebreeding, crossbreeding by itself does not produce genetic progress, but has advantage of exploiting complementarity of traits and heterosis (Simm 1998). Given the large differences in production traits between temperate breeds and local breeds, crossbreeding seems to be a logical solution to quickly improve production in tropical environments. However, poor adaptation of crossbreds to harsh production environments and low socio-economic
* Erling Strandberg [email protected] 1
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden
2
Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB), Kigali, Rwanda
3
University of Rwanda (UR), Butare, Rwanda
support have raised doubts about the sustainability of crossbreeding in some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, where local conditions allow proper implementation, crossbreeding can create substantial increases in animal performance and in farmer income (Roschinsky et al. 2015). The dairy sector in Rwanda mainly consists of crossbred dairy cattle, contributing the major share of dairy production. The most frequent crosses are Holstein Friesian, Jersey, and Sahiwal with Ankole. The crossbreeding program at three research stations has produced several crosses of exotic dairy breeds with Ankole ca
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