Khaled Al-Najjar*(1) Abdulla Nouh(1) and Ali Badran(1)
(1). Animal Wealth Research Administration, General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Dr. Khaled Al-Najjar. E-Mail: khnajj2011@yahoo.com).
Received: 08/10/2018 Accepted: 13/02/2019
Abstract
The Shami cows are local breeds producing milk in Syria, and adapted to environmental conditions but they are threatened with extinction and suffer of craving phenomenon to her calf. The research objective was to evaluate the productivity situation, and study some environmental factors which affect total, daily milk yield /kg, and lactation period /day. This research was carried out using the productivity data at Der-Alhajar Station, which belongs to the General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), in Damascus countryside during the period (1982-2009). Total records were 2461, and Data was analyzed using statistical fixed model to estimate Least Squares Means (LSM) for the studied traits. LSM of total milk yield was 1437.64±54.99 kg. The differences among calving years were highly significant, while calving season, parity, calving age, (calving seasonÍparity) and (calving ageÍparity) had non-significant influences on total milk production trait. LSM of lactation period was 152.08±4.53 day. Effect of calving year was found to be highly significant, while calving season, parity, calving age, (calving seasonÍparity) and (calving ageÍparity) were insignificant on lactation period. LSM of daily milk yield was 8.93±0.21 kg. Calving year showed highly significant effect, parity also had a significant effect, while calving season, calving age, (calving seasonÍparity) and (calving ageÍparity) had no significant effect on daily milk yield. The research concluded that, Shami cows had low milk yield, and daily milk accompanied with short lactation period. This might due to ineffective program selection in the station. So, the study recommends to follow a selection program based on genetic values of a cow in each the studied traits.
Keyword: Shami cows, Milk production, Syria.
Full Paper in Arabic: PDF