Optimization of Economic Traits of Sahiwal Cattle

A study was conducted for estimation of optimum range of age at first calving (AFC), service period (SP) and preceding dry period (DP) on Sahiwal cattle (n=462) data, spread over a period of 15 years (1997–2011), maintained at Livestock Research Center, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. In order to determine the optimum range of these economic traits class interval method was used. A class was considered as optimum, if it accommodated maximum number of observations along with better productive performance on the basis of four production parameters i.e., 305 days or less days milk yield (305DMY), total milk yield (TMY), milk yield per day of lactation length (MY/LL) and milk yield per day of calving interval (MY/CI). In this study, optimum level of AFC, SP and preceding DP were found to be 32–37 months, 55–88 days and 49–88 days, respectively. Because of high rearing costs of heifers, managing heifers to first calving at 32 to 37 months of age could be very advantageous. The present obtained ranges of optimum SP and preceding DP can help in obtaining one calf per year in indigenous cattle that, in turn, will help in improving overall productivity of indigenous cattle.