Comparison of Some Herd Life and Reproductive Parameters of Anatolian Black and Culture Breed Cows

Çağrı Melikşah SAKAR; İlker ÜNAL; Mehmet Ali YILMAZ; Tuncay ÇÖKÜLGEN; Zülal TAVLI YILDIRIR

Çağrı Melikşah SAKAR International Center for Livestock Research and Training https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6692-763X
İlker ÜNAL https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1495-7829
Mehmet Ali YILMAZ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4497-2894
Tuncay ÇÖKÜLGEN https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0455-9958
Zülal TAVLI YILDIRIR https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2110-5683

Keywords: Culture breed cow, Anatolian Black, herd life, productive life, calving age

Abstract

This study was carried out on Holstein Friesian (HF, n=74), Brown-Swiss (BS, n=75), Simmental (SIM, n=34), and Anatolian Black (AB, n=41) female cattle born between 2005-2021 in Lalahan Livestock Research Institute in Ankara, Turkey and separated from the herd during this period. The characteristics of these animals such as herd participation, calving rate, calving age, lifespan, breeding time and herd life were investigated. During this period, 195 of the 224 animals that left the herd in the farm reached breeding age, and 143 of these animals gave birth. First calving ages of HF, BS, SIM and AB cows were 948 days, 1104 days, 988 days and 1169 days, respectively. The average number of calves per cow in the farm was determined as 2.29, 2.31, 3.04 and 4.50, respectively (P=0.007). Of the 224 animals, 38.9% were voluntary and 61.9% were compulsorily separated from the herd. Herd life was determined as 1419 days, 1641 days, 1690 days and 2241 days (P=0.001), while productive life was determined as 788 days, 957 days, 1121 days and 2057 days (P=0.001) in the same respectively. Productive life was found to be 947 days in cultured cows calving before 912 days (30 months) and 2197 days in Anatolian Black. The negative correlation between age at first calving and productive life in culture breeds demonstrates the importance of giving birth to animals before 30 months of age. It is thought that the higher values in the AB breed in terms of herd life and reproduction data may be because this breed does not have any strains in terms of economically important characteristics.