Dairy cattle assessment using specialization indices and productive performance typicality

Abstract

It would seem essential to create animals of the required types in view of the availability of various strains differing in the levels of productive performance within the breeds for dairy and dual-purpose production. Monitoring the herds of Black-and-White and Simmental cattle for the type of production (high production dairy type, dairy type, and duel-purpose: dairy-beef and beef-dairy types) was carried out using various methods. The extra milk yields from the high producing dairy cows of the Simmental breed and the Holstein F₁ crossbreds as compared to the peers of the other types ranged from 469 kg to 1391 kg and from 555 kg to 1734 kg, respectively. Irrespective of any breed and selection, the cows of a dairy type as compared to the peers of a dual-purpose type tended to produce higher yields by 563 kg (P > 0.95), 1140 kg (P > 0.99), and 1173 kg (P > 0.99) from the cows of the Black-and-White breed, the Holstein breed of the domestic selection, and the Holstein breed of the American selection, respectively. The milk of dual-purpose cows as compared to the milk of dairy cows was characterized by higher butterfat content (by 0.06–0.08% on average). The methods applied to identify the parameters for conformation and production traits simultaneously are the most informative techniques to evaluate the production type of cows.