Productive and Reproductive Performances of Indigenous Lime and Parkote Buffaloes in the Western hills of Nepal

Abstract

Livestock is an integral part for the most rural livelihoods in Nepal. A very high proportion of poor and marginalized farmers depend on livestock as main or supplemental resources for their income. Cattle and buffalo contribute to more than 70% of the livestock sector. The Lime, Parkote and Gaddi are the indigenous buffalo breeds of Nepal. The productive and reproductive performances of indigenous buffalo breeds, Lime and Parkote, were studied in Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Lumle in Nepal. The lactation data of the indigenous buffaloes recorded by RARS livestock farm for 14 years (from 2000 to 2014) was collected and analyzed to assess the production and reproduction traits. The productive performance was 964.0±33.0 litre/lactation in Lime and 878.5±66.3 litre/lactation in Parkote, while a daily milk yield of Lime was 3.2±0.1 litre/day and that of Parkote was 2.9±0.2 litre/day. The milk constituents of Lime were 9.0% fat, 9.2% solids not fat (SNF) and 3.8% protein. The milk contents of Parkote were 8.9% fat, 9.8% SNF and 4.0% protein. The maximum mating was found in October (30%), while the minimum mating was in June (1%) in both the breeds. The calving time of Lime and Parkote was maximum in September (36%). The Lime and Parkote buffaloes are high potential milking animals in the western hills of Nepal. Furthermore, the value chain and organic production approaches would be very useful for the conservation and utilization of these indigenous buffaloes.

Genetic and Non-Genetic Factors on Productive and Reproductive Performance of Indigenous Buffalo

“…The milk composition of indigenous buffalo was observed much better and farmers can be benefitted by selling both milk and milk products. Shah et al (2016) also observed a similar finding for the milk composition of indigenous buffalo. The reason behind the non-significant effect of locations on milk composition could be due to a few observations taken to investigate the significance of milk composition.…”

Seasonal variation in milk yield, fat and SNF content of Murrah crossbred buffalo in mid-western Terai region of Nepal

“…Animal persistence is a trait that is correlated with yield decline, once the animal hits peak milk yield (Appuhamy, 2007), exposing a specific animal's capacity for growth. Nonetheless, lactation period, animal parity, and calving season are some other significant factors in cattle (Shah et al, 2016), buffalo and goat (Akingbade, 2003) that could well influence to the milk yield and its composition. Considering the importance of buffalo management in Nepalese rural livestock sector, a scientific research was done in Murrah crossbred buffaloes to analyze the effect of seasonal variation on milk production including composition and quality parameters.…”