FACTORS AFFECTING PERFORMANCE OF SAHIWAL CATTLE – A REVIEW - Z. Rehman; M. S. Khan; M. Aslam Mirza (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2014)
Sahiwal cattle of Pakistan is one of the best zebu cattle breed that can potentially play the same role as Holstein for tropical environment. The environmental factors are generally influenced the Sahiwals' performance as well as other breeds. The performance traits reviewed were age at first calving, milk yield, lactation length, dry period, calving interval, and service period of Sahiwal cows. The average age at first calving among Pakistani Sahiwals ranged from1242±6.7 to 1358±7.9 days. It was 1094 to 1263 days in Indian Sahiwals while Kenyan herd was reported to have 1293±9.3 days of age at first calving. Lactation milk yield have been reported 1474±15.4 kg to 2058.3±9.25 kg in 247 to 318 days longer lactations in Pakistani Sahiwals. Reports on dry period have a range of 148 to 245 days while the lactation milk production for Indian Sahiwals was almost in the same range 1455±10 to 2177.8±40.8 kg in 274±0.8 to 372±8 day long lactations. All the productive and reproductive traits were affected by herd, year, season of calving and parity. The phenotypic correlations among various performance traits have also been reported. Phenotypic deterioration in milk yield was noted over the years.
Keywords: journal article; Sahiwal cattle; eenvironmental factors; phenotypic performance; milk yield