Effect of Parity and Calving Month on Milk Production and Quality of Greek Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)
Keywords:
Greek buffalo, Milk composition, Milk yieldAbstract
Forty lactating Greek buffalo cows were used in an experiment to determine effects of parity and calf birth month on productivity and milk composition. Buffalo cows gave birth on months June and August 2009, and were kept under semi closed system of management. From June to November, during the day the buffalo cows were allowed to graze on the surroundings from 10:00 h and flocked back at 16:00 h. In the experiment, which started on week 6 postpartum and lasted 24 weeks, buffalo cows were fed alfalfa hay, corn silage, wheat straw and concentrate, and were allocated, relative to parity, into treatments GBP1 (21 buffalo cows with parity 1, 2, and 3) and GBP2 (19 buffalo cows with parity 4, 5, and 6), and, relative to calf birth month, into treatments GBB1 (20 buffalo cows with June as calf birth month) and GBB2 (20 buffalo cows with August as calf birth month). Productivity and milk composition were not affected (P>0.05) by calf birth month. During the experiment, there were differences (P<0.001) between GBP1 and GBP2 treatments in average milk yield (4.1 vs. 5.3 kg/day), fat yield (0.33 vs. 0.41 kg/day), protein yield (0.19 vs. 0.24 kg/day), lactose yield (0.21 vs. 0.27 kg/day) and ash yield (0.033 vs. 0.044 kg/day). In contrast, milk fat (80.8 g/kg), protein (45.9 g/kg), lactose (51.2 g/kg) and ash (8.2 g/kg) contents, as well as somatic cell counts (82.9 ×1000/ml) and colony forming units (44.9 ×1000/ml), were not affected (P>0.05) by parity. Milk production and quality of Greek buffalo is generally satisfactory, and may be economically beneficial for local breeders.
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