The Effect of Milking Frequency on Milk and Fat Yield, and Their Curves in Holstein Dairy Cows of Iran

MOGHBELI DAMANE, Moslem; ASADI FOZI, Masoud; AYATOLLAHI MEHRJERDI, Ahmad

doi:10.22059/ijas.2013.32153

The Effect of Milking Frequency on Milk and Fat Yield, and Their Curves in Holstein Dairy Cows of Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Moslem MOGHBELI DAMANE ¹

Masoud ASADI FOZI ²

Ahmad AYATOLLAHI MEHRJERDI ²

¹ Graduated Student, Bahonar University of Kerman

² Faculty members, College of Agriculture, Bahonar University of Kerman

10.22059/ijas.2013.32153

Abstract

Milk and fat yields in 3X and 4X milking schedule in Holstein Cows of Iran were investigated
using 374170 milk and fat yield test day records measured on The 1st and 2nd lactions of 54580 dairy
cattle coming from 205 herds. The records had been collected from 2007 to 2009 by the Iranian
Animal Breeding Center (IABC). The results indicated that an increases in the milking frequency from
3X to 4X increases milk and fat yields during the lactation periods by 14 and 12.6%, respectively.
These values amounted to 15.6 % and 17 % during the lactation peaks. Estimated of co (variance)
components were derived from a random regression model using ASReml. Heterogeneous structure
was used for the residual variance. A value of 0.25 was estimated for the heritability of milk yield in
3X and 4X milking schedules. The heritability of fat yield in the 3X and 4X milking times were
recorded as 0.11 and 0.17, respectively.

Keywords

Holstein dairy cattle of Iran

random regression

Milking frequency

Milk production

Fat production

lactation curve