To determine the effects of a number of non-genetic factors on milk components and estimate their indirect relationships with weaning weight (WW205), the percentages of protein, fat, lactose and solids non-fat in Charolais cows from Mexico were estimated. Lactation period (LP) and calving season (CS) had significant effects on protein and fat, whereas lactose and solids non-fat were only affected by the LP. Sire line and age of the dam had significant effects on calf birth weight, while CS affected […]

This study aimed to calculate new accumulated and daily functions based on the Michaelis-Menten equation to estimate the 305-days production of Gir cows using test day milk yields. Data consisted of 7,412 lactation records of 3,416 Gir cows (Bos indicus) collected from 1987 to 2004 in 51 herds assisted by the National Breeding Program of the Dairy Gir, coordinated by the Dairy Cattle National Research Center (EMBRAPA) and the Brazilian Association of Dairy Gir Breeders (ABCGIL). The models included the […]

The research was carried out to evaluate the lactation curves of Nellore and Crossbred F1 Limousin-Nellore (LN) and Simmental-Nellore (SN) cows and the performance of the progeny. Thirteen cows from each breed group, with age ranging from 5 to 9 years, and the respective calves were used. From 15 days after calving until weaning of the calves (210 days), the cows and calves were kept in individual pens. The nutritional requirements of the cows for maintenance and lactation were met. […]

The experiment was conducted at the Goat Husbandry Sector of FMVZ – UNESP – Botucatu Campus, with the purpose of studying the influence of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST – commercial name: Boostin 250 mg) on the lactation curve, milk production, milk constituents, body weight and body score of goats during the lactation cycle. Twenty-one Alpine Brown goats between 1½ and 4 years old were used, randomly allotted to three treatments with seven animals each: control (T1 – no rbST), complete […]

The behavior of lactation curve of 31 crossbred Saanen dairy goats and the effect of two strategies of supplementation with concentrate: 30% of requirements in net energy from third week until the end of lactation (ESC.1); or 60% of requirements in daily net energy from the 3rd to the 13th week and 15% from 14th until the end of lactation (ESC.2), in a pasture or semi-confined systems, were studied. The following models were evaluated: Wood linear and non-linear, Morant linear […]

The knowledge of the genetic relationships between the parameters of lactation curve and the milk yield is important for the selection of cows and sire. The records milk yield from 583 cows of the Guzerá breed, daughters of 165 sire, were used to estimate the lactation curve parameters by two mathematical models. Milk productions were obtained from the extracted base of data from National Animal Science Archive maintained by National Center for Dairy Research (Embrapa Gado de Leite). The analyses […]

The objectives of this work were to identify the mathematical functions that better fitted the milk production of Guzera breed cows, to evaluate the effects of the environmental factors on the lactation curve format and to estimate the genetic parameters for the milk production and for the dependable components of the lactation curve format. A total of 1130 lactations from 583 Guzera breed cows, daughters of 165 bulls, with production over the period from 1983 to 1997 were used. The […]

The present study was carried out to estimate the average lactation curve of 7239 lactations of Caracu cows based on 299,949 weekly records. The functions fitted to the mean data of the lactation curve were: Linear Hyperbolic and Logarithmic Quadratic as linear and Incomplete Gamma and Inverse Polynomial function as non-linear. The parameters were estimated by iterative methods, Gauss-Newton method. The adjusted Coefficient of Determination (R²A), the Durbin-Watson test (DW) and the deviations (%) from actual and predicted total milk […]

The objective of this experiment was to study the effect of environmental factors on the shape of lactation curves (peak yield, time of peak and persistency) of crossbred Alpine x Gurguéia goats fitted by Incomplete gamma function. Data from 6126 records of 877 lactation of 366 goats raised on Carnaúba Farm, Taperoá city, Paraíba State in the period from 1988 to 1995 were used. The function was fitted by linear regression, after logarithmic transformation and by non-linear iterative method. Adjusted […]