Abstract:
The comparative study was conducted at Alage and Ardaita A TVET College to evaluate
milk production and reproductive performance of Holstein Friesian dairy cows under two
different agro ecologies and HF x Boran crossbred dairy cows a/ Ardaita A TVET college
dairy farm. The data collected from three months monitoring study and from compiled
records from 2000-2015 on milk production and reproductive traits were used for the
study and analyzed using general linear model procedures of SAS version 9.2 (SAS, 2008).
Three months monitoring study was conducted to obtain morning and evening milk
production based on agro ecology, lactation stages, parity class, lactation months and
blood level. The overall estimated least square means of morning milk yield (MMY) and
evening milk yield (EMY) were 6.65±0.02 and 5.46±0.02 kg for pure Holstein Friesian
cows and 5.97±0.04 and 4. 93±0. 04 kgfor Holstein Friesian and HFx Boran crossbred
dairy cows. Except agro-ecology, morning and evening milk yield significantly affected by
all genetic and non-genetic factors. From the collected data of compiled records, the
result revealed that, the overall least square means of lactation milk yield (LMy), lactation
length (LL), age at first Service (AFS), age at first calving (AFC), days open (DO), calving
interval (Cl) and number of services per conception (NSC) of pure Holstein Friesian cows
were estimated to
39.75±0.53 months,
However, the overall least square means of LMY, LL, AFS, AFC,
Holstein Friesian and Hli xHoran crossbred dairy cows at Ar
2787.35±37.64 kg, 310.59±2.89 days, 31.33±0.44 months,
XIII
.\