Milk Yield and Reproductive Traits in Brown Swiss Cattle Raised at Altinova State Farm

The purpose of this study was to investigate the milk yield and reproductive traits of Brown Swiss cattle raised at Altinova State Farm. Milk yield and reproductive traits data used in this study had been collected within a period of 14 years from 1984 through 1997. A total of 1058 lactation records from 324 cows were analysed within the research period. The least squares means for 305 daily milk yield, lactation period and dry period were found as 5340 +/- 91 kg, 302 +/- 4 days and 82.1 +/- 3.2 days, respectively. From the factors which their effects were investigated, effect of years on the 305 days milk yield were found to be highly significant (P<0.01), on the lactation period found to be significant (P<0.05), on the dry period found to be insignificant. The effect of parity on the 305 days milk yield and lactation length were found to be highly significant (P<0.01). The least squares means for age of the heifers at first breeding, age at first calving, calving interval and service period were 614.9 +/- 8.8 days, 904.8 +/- 39.4 days, 383.1 +/- 4.7 and 99.5 +/- 5.0 days respectively. The effect of calving years on age of the heifers at first breeding had highly significant (P<0.01).