FACTORS AFFECTING HERD LIFE AND TOTAL CALF PRODUCTION IN FRIESWAL COWS

The present study was under taken on calving records of 1024 Frieswal cows (a new strain of Holestein Friesian X Sahiwal) maintained at Military Dairy Farm, Meerut, born during1987 to 2000 and maintained over a period of 21years i.e. up to 2007. The average total herd life and total productive herd life were observed 6.43±0.09 and 3.81±0.12 years for this herd. It was observed that only 2.3 per cent cows have attained the highest longevity of more than 12 years and about 80 per cent cows left the herd before completion of 6 years of their herd life either due to culling or death. Most of the female calves attained their age at first calving before 3 years of age with average age at first calving was 2.67±0.07 years. Average number of total alive calves produced and total female calves produced by each cow during her stay in the herd were 2.71± 0.07 and 1.32±0.05 calves, respectively. About one fourth (24.7%) cows left the herd after giving one calf and about 7 % cows produced 8 or more calves during their herd life. There was an increasing trend for the total calves born with the increase in the first lactation milk yield (FLMY), higher milk producing cows produced significantly more number of calves as compared to low milk producers.