Environmental factors affecting performance of cholistani cattle in Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan has 47.8 million heads of cattle, which supply 36% of the total milk production in the country. Most of the cattle population in the country is non-descript and has low inherent milk producing capacity but there are few exceptions like Sahiwal, Red Sindhi and Cholistani cattle which are considered to be the best dairy animals in the tropics and sub-tropics and are well adapted to hot and humid climatic conditions of the country. They command a great resistance to several diseases prevalent in the area. These animals produce good quantity of milk, however, late age at first calving and long calving intervals of these animals result in reduced reproductive efficiency, calf crop and milk yield on lifetime basis that provides a great scope for the improvement of Pakistani cattle. Data on 1473 lactation records of 306 Cholistani cows kept at Government Livestock Farm, Jugait Peer, District Bahawalpur were utilized to evaluate the performance of Cholistani cows and the extent of different environmental sources of variation influencing important performance traits of Cholistani cows. The least squares mean for different traits were computed and the influence of different environmental factors were assessed.