Vol. 10, Special Issue 7 (2021)

Author(s):
Gurpreet Kour, Harpreet Kour, Bilawal Singh, Puspendra Kumar Singh and Avinash Neeraj

Abstract:
Murrah buffaloes occupy a significant position in Indian dairy industry as much of its success depends on the production, reproduction and growth traits of the breed. All these economic traits are influenced by environmental or non-genetic factors like season of calving, period of calving and parity of animals. Adjustment of effect of significant non-genetic factors on the performance traits paves way for efficient evaluation and prediction of breeding value (genetic worth). The production traits reviewed were total lactation milk yield (TMLY), 305 day milk yield (305MY), lactation length (LL), dry period (DP) and peak yield (PY). The reproduction and growth traits under review were age at first calving (AFC), service period (SP), calving interval (CI) and weight at first calving (WFC). Proper selection of superior animals by efficient evaluation of performance records, adjusted for the environmental variations, provides immense opportunities to increase the genetic merit of the herd.