Growth curves and productivity of Holstein-Friesian cows bred
for heavy or light mature live weight
J.G. Garcia-Muniz, C.W. Holmes, D.J. Garrick, N.
Lopez-Villalobos, B.W. Wickham, G. Wilson, I.M. Brookes and R.J.
Purchas.
Department of Animal Science, Massey University, Private Bag 11222,
Palmerston
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production. 1998,
58: 68-72
This paper presents data for live weights (LW) from birth to
maturity, and for yields of milk and milksolids (MSY) per lactation,
from two lines of Holstein-Friesian cows bred for heavy (H) or light (L)
mature LW. Compared with the Brody, Gompertz and Logistic functions, the
Von Bertalanffy function provided the best fit to the LW data, and
prediction from this function has been used in the following analyses.
The breeding values (BV) for LW of the sires (H: 86.3 kg; L: 31.0 kg)
and maternal grandsires (MGS) (H: 55 kg; L: 38 kg) used to develop the H
and L LW lines were higher (P<0.001) for the H line than for the L
line, and they were significantly associated with the actual birth
weight (H: 41 kg; L: 35 kg) and mature live weight (H: 520 kg; L: 467
kg) of the cows. The heavy sires also had significantly higher BV for
yield of milk (H: 1037 l; L: 737 l), milkfat (H: 33.0 kg; L: 27.5 kg),
and milk protein (H: 31 kg; L: 22 kg), and the H cows produced more milk
(H: 4708 l; L: 4323 l), and MSY (H: 364 kg; L: 348 kg) than the L cows.
However, L sires had slightly higher (P = 0.07) value for Breeding Worth
than the H sires (H:37; L:46), and there were only small differences in
yields of milk or MSY between the two lines when these were expressed
per kg of LW, per kg of LW0.75 or per tonne of dry matter required (H:
84 kg MSY/tonne DM; L: 87 kg MSY/tonne DM). The results indicate that
the extra MSY by the H cows (+ 16 kg) almost compensated for the effect
of their extra LW (+ 46 kg), so that the H cows were only slightly less
efficient than the L cows, as predicted by their respective sire’s
Breeding Worth.
Keywords: NZSAPAB;
Mature live weight; growth curves; milksolids yield; dairy cows.
Last Updated 12-09-1998
