Body Measures and Milk Production, Milk Fat Globules Granulometry and Milk Fatty Acid Content in Cabannina Cattle Breed

Abstract

Aim of the study was to achieve scientific information about body measures and milk production of Cabannina cattle, a local breed reared in northern Italy. Fourteen body measures and five morphologic indexes were recorded from 86 heads enrolled in the herd book. Low differences between males and females of the same age-class were shown. Body measures were generally greater than those reported in previous studies, probably due to recent crosses. With reference to milk production, 991 test-day records from 128 lactations of 59 cows were analysed. Average milk daily production was 8 kg/d in 1 st lactation to 10.61 in 3 rd (P<0.05); the parameters of the Wood equation draw atypical curves with the exception of curves from spring calving cows. Only 74.5% of lactations with an adjusted R 2 >0.75 showed a standard curve, with low persistence (7.7%), high value of d at peak (103 d) and peak production of 20.18 kg of milk. Moreover, 100 milk samples (40 to 220 d of lactation) were submitted to a granulometric survey by laser scatter technique in order to evaluate the dimensions of fat globules; then milk fat was analyzed by gas chromatography, and desaturase indexes were determined. Cabannina cows showed small fat globules with high specific surface. Furthermore mean diameter of milk fat globules decreased during lactation then rose. Milk fat contained high levels of cis-MUFA, and high desaturase indexes. In conclusion, the low size of Cabannina cattle orients for a limited meat production. Instead milk production has a higher economic potential, aimed at cheese production and human nutrition.

Body Dimension Measurements of Qinchuan Cattle with Transfer Learning from LiDAR Sensing

“…For the healthy cultivation and genetic breeding of large animals, periodic measurement of the animals’ body dimensions is necessary for breeders and researchers to master the growing complications related to pregnancy, laming, and animal diseases [4,5,6,7]. Large-scale measuring at a hold frame by skilled inspectors (traditional ways consist of a meter stick and metric tapes [8]) is ubiquitous, which has costs in terms of heavy manual labor, the animal’s stress response, and low efficiency due to long fatigue or differences in the individual experience among inspectors [9]. Very often, large animals cannot be effectively modeled on the spot by means of a series of classical 3D modeling methods due to their geometrical complexity or texture at growing periods, and 3D imaging or range scanners have been widely used to acquire the shape of an animal [10].…”

Non-Contact Body Measurement for Qinchuan Cattle with LiDAR Sensor

“…The variation in body dimensions of cattle during their growth periods correlates with body weight [ 1 ], productivity evaluation [ 2 ], selection and breeding [ 3 ]. The periodical measurement of body dimensions is used to evaluate the growth response to nutrient supply and health anomalies [ 4 ], which is one of the most primary quality evaluation criteria [ 5 ]. However, sufficient frequency of body sizes measurement is not easy to accomplish; basically, the body size of adult cattle is measured monthly using scales where the cattle need to be placed in a holding frame which can be stressful for the cattle as well as labor intensive for the farmer.…”

Slaughter performances, body composition and carcass traits of indigenous Algerian cattle "Brune de l'Atlas"

“…The tness of the carcass of each studied animal was evaluated by studying the Body Boniness Index (BBI) (Communod et al, 2013) using the following formula: BBI = CBC / CC; where CBC is cannon bone circumference and CC is Chest circumference.…”