Factors affecting genetic improvement for milk production of dairy cattle at farm level in central Thailand
2010
Mattaneeya Sarakul(Kasetsart University, Bangkok (Thailand). Faculty of Agriculture. Department of Animal Science) E-mail:sarakul1@hotmail.com | Skorn Koonawootrittriron(Kasetsart University, Bangkok (Thailand). Faculty of Agriculture. Department of Animal Science) | Thanathip Suwanasopee(Kasetsart University, Bangkok (Thailand). Faculty of Agriculture. Department of Animal Science) | Elzo, Mauricio A.(University of Florida, Florida (USA). Department of Animal Sciences) | Apinya Hirunwong(Kasetsart University, Bangkok (Thailand). Faculty of Science. Department of Statistics) | Tumanoon Thongprapi(Dairy Farming Promotion Organization of Thailand, Saraburi (Thailand))
Accumulated 305-day milk yield (MY305) and pedigree information of 1,921 first lactation dairy cows that calved from 1991 through 2007 in 161 farms in Central Thailand were used to predict animal breeding values and to estimate genetic trends within farms. Within-farm genetic trends were used to classify farms into 3 groups (positive trend, no trend, and negative trend) to study factors affecting genetic improvement for milk production at farm level. The estimate of the overall genetic trend in the population for MY305 was 0.11 +- 1.10 kg/yr. Most farms (40 percent) had positive genetic trend (2.6 to 230.8 kg/yr) followed by farms with negative genetic trend (35 percent, -0.6 to -173.7 kg/yr) and those with no genetic trend (25 percent, -0.5 to 0.3 kg/yr). However, farmers in these 3 types of farms had similar educational background, experience, size of farm, number and type of employees, source of knowledge, source of sires, and data recording system (P GT 0.05). Thus, the ability of farmers in this population to choose appropriate sires and replacement dams appeared to be unrelated to their background, farm size, source of sires, and data recording system.
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