Productive and Reproductive Performance of Jersey Cattle in the Hill Country of Sri Lanka

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the productive and reproductive performance of Jersey cattle in the National Livestock Development Board farm Dayagama, Sri Lanka. The records on productive traits viz. lactation milk yield, birth weight, lactation length and calving interval and reproductive traits viz. age at first calving, number of service per conception, calving to service period, days open, gestation length and dry period were collected from 131 Jersey cows in the farm for the period of 1999 - 2011. The data were analyzed using SAS (Version 8.0). The overall least squares means of lactation milk yield, lactation length, birth weight and calving interval were 2235±776Kg, 323.78±91.02days, 20.97±2.35kg and 447.73±142.88 days, respectively. The overall means of age at first calving, calving to service period, days open, gestation length and dry period were 41±10 months, 92±66 days, 156±123 days, 276±12 days and 120±122 days, respectively. The number of services per conception, rate of abortion and still birth were 2.1±1.29, 3.96% and 5.4%, respectively. The study reveals that the values for total milk yield, birth weight, lactation length and number of services per conception falls within the average values observed in other tropical countries. However values for calving interval, age at first calving, calving to service period and days open were higher than the optimum values recommended to maintain reproductive efficiency. It could be concluded that the factors influencing each trait identified in the current study could be used to improve the performance of Jersey cattle in Dayagama farm.