Effect of some non-genetic factors on the productivity and profitability of Holstein Friesian dairy cows

Abstract

Background and Aim: Milk yield (MY) is one of the main factors that affect the economic profitability of dairy farms. Thus, increasing the MY per animal and decreasing the feed cost can lead to economic gains, so the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of dry period length (DPL), days open (DO), and days in milk (DIM) on the productivity and profitability of dairy cow farms. Materials and Methods: Data used in this study were taken from 3095 lactation records of Friesian dairy cows of private and governmental sectors. The data were classified into 4 DPL categories: DPL1 <45 days; DPL2 45-60 days; DPL3 61-75 days, and DPL4 >75 days, 3 DO categories: DO1 ≤90 days; DO2 91-110 days and DO3 >111 days, and 8 DIM categories: DIM1 180-210 days; DIM2 211-240 days; DIM3 241-270 days; DIM4 271-300 days; DIM5 301-330 days; DIM6 331-360 days; DIM7 361-447 days; and DIM8 >447 days. Results: The average net profit (NP) was significantly different (p<0.05) among different categories of DPL, DO, and DIM in both production sectors, where high estimates of NP were calculated for DPL3 (30667.3 EGP), and it was the lowest for DPL1 (19690.6 EGP). DO2 had the highest NP (30754.1 EGP), while DO3 had the lowest NP (24875.5 EGP). DIM3 had the highest NP (29569.3 EGP), while DIM8 had the lowest NP (19528.4 EGP). Conclusion: Finally, we can conclude that DPL 61-75 days, DO 91-110 days, and DIM 241-270 days had the highest level of total MY, total return, and NP. Private dairy cow farms achieve a higher level of NP than governmental ones under subtropical Egyptian conditions.

The estimation and interpretation of ordered logit models for assessing the factors connected with the productivity of Holstein–Friesian dairy cows in Egypt

“…The dry period lengths were 55.29 days, 65.54 days, and 103.90 days on average. In general, the overall means of the examined traits were within the normal limits of Egyptian dairy herds and came close to the estimates denoted by previous investigations such as Ali et al ( 2005 ); Abdallah and Abo-Elfadl ( 2017 ); Moawed and Osman ( 2018 ), Abd-El Hamed and Kamel ( 2021 ), and Moawed et al ( 2021 ), who conducted multiple studies on Holstein–Friesian dairy cows raised in Egypt using different logistic regression methods. When it comes to the proportions of milk yield categories, the pooled data (Table 3 ) revealed that 22.72% of cows yielded low milk production (< 4500 kg), while 28.55% of cows were of medium yield (4500–7500 kg).…”

“…Logistic regression methods instead can be utilized to analyze and predict the categorical response variable on the basis of one or more explanatory variables (Adeleke and Adepoju 2010 ; Vittinghoff et al 2012 ; Abd-El Hamed and Kamel 2021 ). Namely, the logistic regression models may be binary, ordinal, or polynomial, according to the number and nature of categories of the dependent variables.…”

Effect of Layer Breeds on the Productivity and Profitability of Layer Farms under Egyptian Condition

“…Regarding the FCR, it was the best for ISA Brown (2.22), followed by Lohmann (LB), Hy-Line W-36, and Hy-line Brown (2.26, 2.38 &2.38, respectively), these results agreed with those of Estrada Pareja and Restrepo Betancur (2015) who concluded that the ISA Brown achieved better results for the main performance parameters, also these results in the same line with Rayan et al (2013) who concluded that the W-36 layers strain had a better feed conversion ratio compared to the Hy-Line brown strain. While these results disagreed with Xin et al (2006) who showed that the FCR was the best for Hy-Line W-36 and Hy-line Brown (1.77 & 1.99, respectively), while it was higher for ISA Brown (2). The results concerning the egg mass agreed with Al-Khalifa and Ragheb (2013) who stated that brown hens would produce more egg mass than white hens.…”