Effect of Season on Reproductive Performance of Bhagnari Cattle Managed Under Semi Intensive Management Condition

Abstract

SOJ Veterinary SciencesOpen Access Research Article in each year. In agriculture; the livestock contributed about 55.9% while 11.8 percent was contributed in to the national GDP during the year 2013 -14 (GOP, 2013 [1]. In past, the cattle were kept for draught and meat purpose only. Later on, with the industrialization, the cattle occupied the place of dairy and meat animal [2]. Limited feed resources demands better utilization of animal wealth in the country. In Pakistan, there are more than ten distinct cattle breeds among those, Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Thari, Dhajal and Bhagnari are most popular cattle breeds [3].The Bhagnari cattle is a draught breed and found in Bhag territory in north of district Jacobabad Sindh and district Sibi, Baluchistan. The Bhagnari cattle has the ability to survive in hard and harsh environmental conditions and has resistance power against various diseases as compared to other cattle breeds [4]. The production and reproduction of the animals are directly under the influence of genetic potential of the animal, environment, nutrition, management of farm and the staff involved. Under optimal condition a cow heifer should attend puberty at an early age, conceive to fertile mating, produce a viable calf, return to estrus early after calving and again become pregnant and repeat this cycle at regular interval till the end of its productive life. The opened days in between 60-90 could be considered as standard reproductive index. This process insures a harvest of more milk and calf crops during life time of animal. Delay at any stage causes great economic losses to farmers and dairy producers [5].The success in production is related to several factors of reproductive performance which includes such as age of puberty, age at first calving, post-partum estrus, calving intervals, effect of season and ultimately the milk yield. The poor reproductive performance of the animals resulting decline in herd fertility, AbstractThis study was conducted to investigate the effect of season on some of productive and reproductive performance of Bhagnari cattle maintained under semi intensive management condition at Usta Mohammad Cattle Farm, Baluchistan. The record of one hundred cows of Bhagnari breed were selected and utilized in this study, out of those the records of 84 cows were used for age at puberty, the calving record of 294 cows for calving intervals and 294 cows milk records for milk yield were evaluated to determine the effect of season on age at puberty, calving interval and milk yield. The season of the year was divided in to four seasons i.e. spring, summer, autumn and winter. The result revealed that the overall mean age at puberty, calving interval and milk yield was recorded as 935.56 ± 55.221 days, 415.935 ± 8.179 days and 785.723 ± 12.228 liters respectively during present study. The season of the year was significant (P<0.005) effect on age at puberty, calving interval and milk yield. The calves born in winter season reached to puberty at early age (816.14 ± 51.307 days) than the calve...