Productivity, milk composition and reasons for leaving the herds of Ukrainian local cows and their crossbreeds with brown swiss and Montbeliarde breeds during five lactations

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to study changes in productivity, quality of milk, duration of productive longevity, easy calving and reasons for leaving the herd of cows of Ukrainian local Black-Spotted (UBS) (n=43) and Red-Spotted (URS) (n=46) breeds and their crossbreeds with Brown Swiss (n=28) and Montbeliarde (n=32) breeds. It was found that purebred UBS cows outnumbered crossbred UBS cows with the Brown Swiss breed by 106.46 – 262.60 kg in the period from the first to the fifth lactation and URS crossbreeds with the Montbeliarde breed by 143.89 – 218.39 kg. The indices of fat and protein content in the milk of crossbred UBS and Brown Swiss cows during the period of productive use were higher in comparison with purebred analogues by 0.08–0.14% and 0.08–0.15%. Hybrids of URS cows with Montbeliarde breed outnumbered purebred analogues of these indicators by 0.13–0.16% and 0.20–0.22%, respectively. After five completed lactations, the crossbreeds of UBS cows with the Brown Swiss breed were 9.20% more than purebred UBS counterparts. A similar situation was observed in the case of crossbreeds of URS cows with Montbeliarde breed, which for the same period was 8.48% more than purebred URS counterparts. In crossbreeds of UBS cows with the Brown Swiss breed, 1.34 and 0.79% fewer cases of abortion and stillbirth compared with purebred counterparts were observed. With regard to crossbred URS and Montbeliarde cows, these indicators also showed an advantage over purebred URS animals by 0.25 and 1.01%, respectively. With regard to cases of assistance during calving, the crossover of UBS breed with Brown Swiss during the five completed lactations was lower by 1.67%, and the crossbreed of URS breed with Montbeliarde by 2.43% compared to purebred analogues.