Authors : Alexander. K. Kahi , Stanley. K. Ng`ang`a , Samuel M. Mbuku , Tobias. O. Okeno and Mary. K. Ambula
Abstract: Records of cows born during the period 1983 to 1997 in three large scale farms (Ngongogeri, Tatton Demonstration Unit - TDU and Laikipia) belonging to Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya were used to estimate the productive and reproductive performance of the Friesian (F), Ayrshire (A), Guernsey (G) and Jersey (J) cattle breeds. The influence of environmental factors on these traits was also determined. The productive traits involved included lactation milk yield (MY) and lactation length (LL) while the reproductive traits were age at first calving (AFC) and calving interval (CI). As expected, some traits were influenced by the environmental factors (year and season of birth and calving, lactation number and herd). Breed was a significant (P<0.1) source of variation for the productive traits (MY and LL) alone and not for the reproductive traits. As expected, the F breed had the highest (2808 kg) and J the lowest MY (1872 kg). The J breed had the lowest values for all the traits. Despite the low MY, the J had the youngest AFC (1041 days) and the shortest CI (430 days). The level of performance of these breeds was much lower compared to their performance in the elsewhere in Kenya. This indicates that low genetic progress in productive and reproductive traits of the B. taurus breeds in Egerton University farms has contributed to the decrease in milk production over the years. The low levels of performance in these farms indicate that considerable improvement could be achieved by improving the production environment. It is concluded that decisions aiming to increase the production efficiency in these farms should not solely be based on the productive and reproductive performance of cows but also on the improvement of the production environment.
Alexander. K. Kahi , Stanley. K. Ng`ang`a , Samuel M. Mbuku , Tobias. O. Okeno and Mary. K. Ambula , 2004. Productive and Reproductive Performance of Purebred Bos taurus Cattle in Three Large Scale Farms in Kenya . Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 3: 846-851.