Comparative Analysis of Performance Traits of Different Dairy Cattle Reared in the Srinagar City of J&K

Animal Husbandry is an important part of the agriculture sector and rural economy of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Agriculture plays a very prominent role for economic development of the country. According to the JK Economic Survey, about 70% of the population in J&K gets livelihood directly or indirectly from agriculture and allied sectors (Anonymous, 2015a). It has also witnessed an impressive growth in livestock sector, particularly in dairying, contributing about 1.3% to the total milk production of the country (Anonymous, 2016). Dairy development is the major sector which is still unorganized to a large extent. Cattle contributes 30.41% to the total livestock population of J&K, out of which 53% are exotic/crossbred and the remaining 47% are indigenous (Anonymous, 2014). The percentage share of exotic/crossbred cattle has shown an increasing trend while indigenous cattle has shown a declining trend during the last inter-census period indicating that people are preferring exotic/crossbred cattle over the indigenous cattle.
        
Jammu & Kashmir has seen continuous inflow of various type of cattle throughout the history resulting in development of non-descript cattle (Aziz, 2010). Various developmental programmes that were started in the State also changed the breed structure. Breeding of local cows with local selected bulls earlier (Aziz, 2010) and later on with Jerseys and Holstein Friesians (Anonymous, 2017a) improved the performance of cows to a significant extent. As per reports, around 50% of the total cattle population in the State has been upgraded into high yielding cross bred varieties viz. Crossbred Jersey and Crossbred Holstein Friesian (Anonymous, 2017b). City of Srinagar has seen the highest impact of this with 99.26% of the total cattle population being crossbred/exotic (Anonymous, 2014). The present study was planned to study the production and reproduction potential of these crossbred cows in the city conditions of J&K. Getahun et al., (2020), in their study on Borena crosses with Holstein Friesian showed high influence of environmental conditions on reproductive traits of these cattle. Since the environmental conditions of Valley of Kashmir are similar to the native places of Jersey and Holstein-Friesian, the importance of evaluating the performance of these crossbreds reared in the Valley becomes even more significant.

Study area
 
The study was conducted in District Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir with a human population of 12.37 lakhs (Anonymous, 2015b) and a cattle population 43.166 thousand (Anonymous, 2014) contributing 16.43 thousand metric tonnes of milk (Anonymous, 2015a). Srinagar, spread out on an area of 294 km² is located between 34°5' N and 74°47' E at an elevation of 1585 meters. The climate in the Valley is a humid subtropical type, which is much cooler than much of the rest of India, due to its moderately high elevation and northerly position.
 
Data collection
 
A total of 831 cows were randomly selected for the study, which included 378 Holstein Friesian Crossbred (HFCB) cows and 453 Jersey Crossbred (JCB) cows. Information regarding various performance (production and reproduction) traits was obtained from their respective owners and recorded carefully on a record sheet.
        
Performance traits studied in the present study included Age at First Calving (Period between date of birth and date of first calving), Service Period (Period between date of calving to date of next successful conception), Lactation Length (Total number of days the animal yielded milk in a particular lactation order), Lactation Yield (Total quantity of milk yielded by an animal in a particular lactation order from the date of calving till it dries), Daily Milk Yield (Average milk yield per day), Peak Milk Yield (Maximum amount of milk produced on any day in lactation), Dry Period (Time interval between two successive lactations), Calving Interval (Difference of period from one calving to the next calving) and Birth Weight.
 
Statistical analysis
 
The data obtained was tabulated, classified and analyzed statistically by drawing averages. The means between the groups were compared by using Student’s t-test (Snedecor and Cochran, 1980).

Lactation length
 
Lactation length was observed to be significantly longer in JCB cows than HFCB cows as shown in Table 1. Lactation length of HFCB and JCB cows in the present study was found to be less than the reported values of Jersey cows, Holstein Friesian cows, Red Dane cows (Thomas et al., 2012), local cows of Gurez Valley, Jersey crossbred cows of Gurez Valley (Singh, 2016) and Jersey x Friesian cows (Haque et al., 2011), but more than Brown Swiss cows, Sahiwal cows, Red Sindhi cows, Tharparkar cows, Gir cows, Hariana cows (Thomas et al., 2012), dairy cows in Western Kenya (Wanjala and Njehia, 2014), Frieswal (Holstein Friesian x Sahiwal) crossbred cows (Singh et al., 2013), Sahiwal x Local crossbred cows and Jersey x Local crossbred cows  (Haque et al., 2011).
 
Lactation yield
 
Lactation yield was observed to be significantly higher in HFCB cows than JCB cows (Table 1). Lactation yield of HFCB cows in the present study was more than the corresponding figures reported in Frieswal (Holstein Friesian x Sahiwal) crossbred cows (Singh et al., 2013), Bos indicus x Holstein Friesian crossbred cows, Bos indicus x Jersey crossbred cows, Bos indicus x Brown Swiss crossbred cows, Sahiwal cows, Tharparkar cows, Gir cows, Hariana cows, Ongole cows, Kankrej cows, Rathi cows, Deoni cows, Kangayam cows, Dangi cows, non-descript cows, Jersey cows (Thomas et al., 2012) and Red Sindhi cows (Pundir et al., 2007), but less than the same in Holstein Friesian cows, Brown Swiss cows, Red Dane cows (Thomas et al., 2012).
 

        
Lactation yield of JCB cows in the present study was more than Frieswal (Holstein Friesian x Sahiwal) crossbred cows (Singh et al., 2013) Bos indicus x Holstein Friesian crossbred cows, Bos indicus x Jersey crossbred cows, Bos indicus x Brown Swiss crossbred cows, Sahiwal cows, Red Sindhi cows, Tharparkar cows, Gir cows, Hariana cows, Ongole cows, Kankrej cows, Rathi cows, Deoni cows, Kangayam cows, Dangi cows and non-descript cows, but was less than Jersey cows, Holstein Friesian cows, Brown Swiss cows and Red Dane cows (Thomas et al., 2012).
 
Peak milk yield
 
Peak milk yield was observed to be significantly higher in HFCB cows than JCB cows as shown in Table 1. Peak milk yield of HFCB cows in the present study was found to be more than reports of the same in local cows and crossbred cows of various zones of J&K (Wani et al., 2010), local cattle of Mizoram (Saidur and Girin, 2015), Kenana cattle (Musa et al., 2011) and higher grade Holstein Friesian crossbred cattle in Humid Tropical Climate of Kerala (Stephen, 2016).
 
Peak milk yield of JCB cows in the present study was more than the local cows and crossbred cows of various zones of J&K (Wani et al., 2010), local cattle of Mizoram (Saidur and Girin, 2015) and Kenana cattle (Musa et al., 2011) but less than higher-grade Holstein Friesian crossbred cattle in Humid Tropical Climate of Kerala (Stephen, 2016).
 
Daily milk yield
 
Daily milk yield was observed to be significantly higher in HFCB cows than JCB cows as depicted in Table 1. Daily milk yield of HFCB cows in the present study was more than the corresponding values reported in the local cows and crossbred cows of various zones of J&K (Wani et al., 2010), local cows and Jersey crossbred cows of Gurez Valley (Singh, 2016), different crosses of milch cow in Mithapukur Upazila (Bangladesh) with Sahiwal (Sahiwal cross), Jersey (Jersey cross) and Red Sindhi (Red Sindhi cross) (Nath et al., 2016), Frieswal (Holstein Friesian x Sahiwal) crossbred cows (Singh et al., 2013), but less than same in Holstein Friesian Cross with milch cow in Mithapukur Upazila (Bangladesh) (Nath et al., 2016), Czech Fleckvieh cows and Holstein cows (Rehak et al., 2012).
        
However, daily milk yield of JCB cows was found to be more than the reported values in the local cows and crossbred cows of various zones of J&K (Wani et al., 2010), local cows and Jersey crossbred cows of Gurez Valley (Singh, 2016), different crosses of milch cow in Mithapukur Upazila (Bangladesh) with Sahiwal (Sahiwal cross), Jersey (Jersey cross) and Red Sindhi (Red Sindhi cross) (Nath et al., 2016), but less than that of Frieswal (Holstein Friesian x Sahiwal) crossbred cows (Singh et al., 2013), Czech Fleckvieh cows, Holstein cows (Rehak et al., 2012) and Holstein Friesian Cross with milch cow in Mithapukur Upazila (Bangladesh) (Nath et al., 2016).
 
Dry period
 
Dry period was slightly higher for JCB cows than HFCB cows (Table 1). The present study revealed that duration of dry period was kept short in both HFCB and JCB cows by farmers (Table 1), which was far less than the recommended dry period in various exotic and indigenous breeds of cattle (Wani et al., 2010; Thomas et al., 2012; Vinothraj et al., 2016).
 
Service period
 
Service period was observed to be longer in JCB cows than HFCB cows as depicted in Table 1. Longer service period has been reported in Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, Gir, Hariana, Kankrej, Ongole, Brown Swiss and Bos indicus x Bos Taurus cows (Thomas et al., 2012) than HFCB cows in the present study. Service period of JCB cows in the present study was found to be longer than Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, Gir, Hariana, Kankrej, Ongole, Brown Swiss but shorter than Bos indicus x Bos Taurus cows (Thomas et al., 2012) .
 
Gestation period
 
Gestation period was observed to be longer in HFCB cows than JCB cows as shown in Table 1. Gestation period of HFCB and JCB cows in the present study was found to be shorter than Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, Gir, Hariana, Kankrej, Ongole, Brown Swiss and Bos indicus x Bos Taurus cows (Thomas et al., 2012), but longer than Jersey x Friesian crossbred cows, Jersey x local crossbred cows, Sahiwal x local cows (Haque et al., 2011) and Holstein Friesian cows (Thomas et al., 2012).
 
Age at first calving
 
Longer age at first calving was noted in JCB cows than HFCB cows (Table 1), which was less than reports of various workers in Red Sindhi (Pundir et al., 2007), Sahiwal, Tharparkar, Gir, Hariana, Kankrej, Ongole, non-descript, Brown Swiss cows (Thomas et al., 2012) and Siri cattle (Pundir et al., 2016) but was more than reported figures in Jersey, Holstein Friesian, Red Dane and  Bos indicus x Bos Taurus cows (Thomas et al., 2012).
 
Calving Interval
 
Calving interval of HFCB and JCB cows in the present study was found to be less than Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, Gir, Hariana, Kankrej, Ongole, non-descript, Brown Swiss cows, Jersey, Holstein Friesian, Red Dane and  Bos indicus x Bos Taurus cows (Thomas et al., 2012), local cows and Jersey crossbred cows of Gurez Valley (Singh, 2016), dairy cows in Western Kenya (Wanjala and Njehia, 2014) but more than Holstein cows and Czech Fleckvieh cows (Rehak et al., 2012).
        
Calving interval of JCB cows in the present study was found to be less than Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, Gir, Hariana, Kankrej, Ongole, non-descript, Brown Swiss cows, Jersey, Holstein Friesian, Red Dane and  Bos indicus x Bos Taurus cows (Thomas et al., 2012), local cows and Jersey crossbred cows of Gurez Valley (Singh, 2016), dairy cows in Western Kenya (Wanjala and Njehia, 2014) and Holstein cows (Rehak et al., 2012), but more than Czech Fleckvieh cows (Rehak et al., 2012).
 
Birth weight
 
Birth weight was significantly more in HFCB calves than JCB calves as indicated in Table 1. Birth weight of HFCB and JCB cows in the present study was found to be less than birth weight reported in Friesian cows but more than the Sahiwal x Friesian cows, Hariana cows, Hariana x Friesian cows, Tharparkar cows, Tharparkar x Friesian cows, Gir cows and Gir x Friesian cows (Thomas et al., 2012).

It was concluded that both HFCB cows and JCB cows performed well in the local conditions of Srinagar where farmers prefer to rear only more productive cows because of resource constraint. The differences in the performance traits between HFCB and JCB cows might be attributed to the similar variations in these parameters in purebred Jersey and Holstein Friesians cows and appears to be reflected in their respective crosses too. However, there is still a scope for improvement in the performance of these crosses which can be realized by improving management through scientific interventions.