Tafara Kundai MAVUNGA, Eddington GORORO, Obert TADA

Effects of Environment in Productive Performance of Holstein Dairy Cows in Zimbabwe

The level of performance in any livestock production enterprise is a function of genetic and non-genetic factors and their interaction. For the purpose of agricultural production decisions, Zimbabwe was divided into five agro-ecological zones (AEZ) according to rainfall intensity, distribution and length of rainy season. Commercial dairy production, based on specialist dairy breeds such as Holstein, Holstein-Friesian and Jersey, is confined to AEZ I, II, III and IV. The performance of these breeds in contrasting AEZ has not been determined. In this study, farm level data of 7562 Holstein-Friesian cows calving in the period 2003-2011 was used to compare milk yield and milk components across three contrasting AEZ of Zimbabwe. A Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was fitted to investigate the fixed effects of year, season and AEZ and random effects of days in milk (DIM) on milk production and component traits.The factors herd, agro-ecological zone, year and season had significant (P

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