Animal Husbandry and Dairying: Breeds, Reproduction and Feeding
Animal Husbandry and Dairying tests breed identification, the reproduction cycle, milk composition, feeding standards and the common diseases of cattle and buffalo.
Breeds you must place correctly
- Indigenous dairy cattle: Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Gir, Tharparkar, Rathi.
- Exotic dairy cattle: Holstein Friesian (highest yield, black and white) and Jersey (smaller, higher fat percentage).
- Buffalo: Murrah, Mehsana, Surti, Jaffarabadi, Nili-Ravi. Murrah is the leading milk buffalo of north India.
Reproduction numbers
Estrus cycle about 21 days, estrus duration 12–18 hours, gestation 280 days in cattle and about 310 days in buffalo, dry period around 60 days, lactation length about 305 days, incubation 21 days for hen and 28 for duck.
Worked example
A cow yields 10 litres a day over a 300-day lactation, giving 3,000 litres. Her calving interval is 400 days. Yield per day of calving interval = 3,000 ÷ 400 = 7.5 litres, not 10. This is the honest measure of lifetime efficiency, because it charges the dry period against her.
Traps
- Using the cattle gestation period of 280 days for a buffalo.
- Ignoring colostrum: the calf must receive the first milk within the first hour of birth for passive immunity.
- Comparing breeds on daily yield instead of yield per day of calving interval.
- Confusing foot and mouth disease (viral) with haemorrhagic septicaemia (bacterial).