Milk yield and season of calving in buffaloes and cattle in Pakistan

Seasonality of calving and its association with milk yield was analyzed in Nili-Ravi buffaloes and compared with Sahiwal cattle and Sahiwal (x Friesian or Jersey) crossbreds. Records of 9,174 lactations of Nili-Ravi buffaloes from four institutional herds, 22,499 lactations from five Sahiwal herds and 656 lactations from a crossbred cattle herd were used for comparison. All the herds were located in Punjab province of Pakistan where environment is tropical. Month of calving was important source of variation in lactation milk yield of Nili-Ravi buffaloes and Sahiwal cattle but not in crossbred cattle (due to wide variation). Interactions of month of calving with parity as well as with herd were significant (P<0.01) both for buffaloes and Sahiwal cattle. First parity lactation milk yield averaged 1813 +/- 23.2, 1305 +/- 11.0 and 2459 +/- 81.8 litres while averages of later parity animals were 1926 +/- 19.0, 1527 +/- 7.6 and 2842 +/- 54.2 litres for Nili-Ravi buffaloes, Sahiwal and crossbred cattle, respectively. Milk yield pattern in crossbreds was more similar to buffaloes than to Sahiwals. Yet, crossbreds calving in June produced statistically similar but numerically higher lactation milk yield (2950 +/- 170 litres) than other months but this was not true for buffaloes and Sahiwals. Buffaloes and Sahiwal cows calving in January-February produced better lactation yields than those calving in other months. Different pattern of milk yield in the three dairy species can be used advantageously for sustainable milk supply throughout the year.