Vol. 8, Issue 7 (2019)

Author(s):
Soni Kumari, Raman Narang, Puneet Malhotra, Nisha Sharma and Arnav Mehrotra

Abstract:
Records of 642 animals belonging to 79 sires maintained at GADVASU livestock farm, Ludhiana, Punjab were analyzed to study the effect of genetic and non genetic factors on birth weight (BW), age at first service (AFS) and age at calving (AFC). The least square means for BW, AFS and AFC were 28.32±0.35 kg, 604.79±13.24 days and 942.39±12.00 days, respectively. The heritability estimates of BW, AFS and AFC were 0.149±0.046, 0.525±0.142 and 0.408±0.132 respectively. The effect of sire was significant on AFS and AFC and non significant on BW. Animal’s genetic group did not significantly affect any trait. BW was significantly affected by season of birth. The period of birth significantly affected the AFS and AFC. The moderate – high heritability estimates suggest ample scope of improvement in the reproductive performance of crossbred cattle through direct selection.