multivariate measure of lactation persistency for dairy sheep
The persistency of lactation, i.e. the ability of animals to maintain a rconstant level of production after the lactation peak, represents an interesting trait for animal breeding strategies, allowing for the increase of profitability of animal husbandry via the reduction of production costs. Dairy...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2011-03-01
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| Series: | Italian Journal of Animal Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.aspajournal.it/index.php/ijas/article/view/1910 |
| Summary: | The persistency of lactation, i.e. the ability of animals to maintain a rconstant level of production after the lactation peak, represents an interesting trait for animal breeding strategies, allowing for the increase of profitability of animal husbandry via the reduction of production costs. Dairy cattle with flatter curves show a higher reproductive efficiency, a better metabolic status and have their nutritional requirements more constantly spread throughout lactation, allowing for the use of cheaper feeds (Dekkers et al., 1998; Solkner and Fucks, 1987). Also in dairy sheep the persistency could represent an interesting trait for breeding purposes. A main problem for the introduction of this trait in an aggregate genotype is represented by the difficulty in finding an objective measure: several measurements of lactation persistency have been proposed but none of them is widely accepted (Gengler, 1996).......... |
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| ISSN: | 1594-4077 1828-051X |