Variability of fundament traits in primiparous Simmental heifers

Abstract

Visual evaluation and recognition of dairy traits of cows are preliminary indicators of milk yield, longevity, and reproductive ability of the individual animal, which is very important from the aspect of the economics of milk production. The deficiencies in the fundament traits lead to poor production, poor health and premature culling of cows from the herd. The paper examines the frequency of preferred scores of a certain trait in the first calving heifers according to the housing method (animals reared by individual agricultural producers and farm animals) and their origin (domestic and imported animals), as well as the impact of these two factors on the observed properties. Four fundament traits were analysed: the position of the hind legs, the development of the hocks/joints, the pastern joints and the height of the feet on a total of 954 first-calving Simmental heifers. Observed by the housing method, the higher frequency of the preferred scores for all of the fundament traits, was achieved by the farm cows, while according to the origin of the cows, the higher frequency of the preferred scores for all of the fundament traits was realized by imported animals in relation to domestic cows. The influence of the factors of the housing method and origin of animals examined by χ2 test on all the tested linear scores (frequency of scores) of the fundament traits was statistically very significant (p≤0.001), while the analysis of the variance (F test) determined high significance (p≤0.001) of the interaction between the origin and housing method on the height of the feet, as well as significant effect (p≤0.05) on the position of the hind legs, while on other linear scores of the fundament traits it did not exhibit statistical significance (p>0.05).

Vizuelna procena i prepoznavanje mlečnih karakteristika krava su preliminarni pokazatelji mlečnosti, dugovečnosti, kao i reproduktivnih sposobnosti grla, što je veoma važno sa aspekta ekonomičnosti proizvodnje mleka. Nedostaci u osobinama fundamenta dovode do slabije proizvodnje, lošeg zdravstvenog stanja i preranog isključenja krava iz zapata. U radu je ispitivana učestalost poželjnih ocena određene osobine kod prvotelki podeljenih po načinu držanja (grla kod individualnih proizvođača i grla sa farme) i podeljenih po poreklu (grla domaćeg odgoja i grla iz uvoza), kao i uticaj ova dva faktora na posmatrane osobine. Analizirane su četiri osobine fundamenta: položaj zadnjih nogu, razvijenost skočnog zgloba, kičični zglobovi i visina papaka na ukupno 954 prvotelke simentalske rase. Posmatrano prema načinu držanja, veću frekvenciju poželjnih ocena za sve osobine fundamenta iskazane u ocenama ostvarile su krave sa farme, dok su prema poreklu krava, veću frekvenciju poželjnih ocena za sve osobine fundamenta iskazane u ocenama ostvarile krave poreklom iz uvoza u odnosu na krave domaćeg porekla. Uticaj faktora načina držanja i porekla grla ispitivani χ2 testom na sve isptitivane linearne ocene (frekvenciju ocena) osobina fundamenta bio je statistički vrlo visoko značajan (p≤0,001), dok je analizom varijanse (F test) utvrđena visoka značajnost (p≤0,001) interakcije porekla i načina držanja na visinu papaka, kao i značajnost (p≤0,05) na poziciju zadnjih nogu, dok na ostale linearne ocene osobina fundamenta nije ispoljila statističku značajnost (p>0,05).