The present study aimed at displaying effects of farm, age at first services, age at first calving, days in
milk, days in milk to first breeding, calving interval, days open, number of services per conception,
days dry, season and year of calving, lactation order and level of production on the breeding
efficiency of a total 1342 buffalo cow records measured by different methods. The highest breeding
efficiency measured by Wilcox and Wilcox modification methods was 85.59 and 91.92 % at over 25
month and by Tomar and Sharma methods was 75.37 and 91.31% at less than 20 month of age at first
services, respectively. Highest values of Wilcox, Tomar and Sharma methods were 85.34 %, 81.82 %
and 99.66 %, respectively at less 30 month of ages at first calving and highest breeding efficiency
measured by Wilcox modification method was 92.86 % at about over than 35 month age at first
calving. Lowest the breeding efficiency measured by Wilcox, Tomar and Sharma methods recorded at
more than 300 days in milk (81.53, 89.83 and 90.21 %, respectively). The breeding efficiency tended
to decrease by increasing the calving interval, highest values of breeding efficiency were 91.87, 94.53,
76.44 and 94.05 % for Wilcox, Wilcox modification, Tomar and Sharma methods, respectively at 11-
13 months of calving interval. Days open had significant effect (P ≤ 0.05) on Wilcox and Wilcox
modification methods, while it had non significant effect (P ≥ 0.05) on Tomar and Sharma methods.
Days dry and season of calving had non significant effect (P ≥ 0.05) on breeding efficiency measures
by all methods. The highest breeding efficiency measures by Tomar and Sharma methods obtained in
first lactation (76.57 and 95.67 %, respectively), while the highest breeding efficiency measured by
Wilcox and Wilcox modification methods recorded in second lactation (88.08 and 94.40 %,
respectively). High levels of production are usually associated with high breeding efficiency. It can be
concluded that buffalo cows can maintain high breeding efficiency with high levels of milk
production if accompanied by good management that maintain BCS and avoid negative energy
balance; all can be obtained with the adjustment of ration to the corresponding stage of production. |
