Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T02:44:32.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Net energy efficiencies of Holstein, Jersey and Holstein-Jersey F1-crosses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2016

R. Schwager-Suter ,
C. Stricker ,
D. Erdin  and
N. Künzi
R. Schwager-Suter
Affiliation:
Institute of Animal Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH-Zentrum CLU, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
C. Stricker
Affiliation:
Institute of Animal Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH-Zentrum CLU, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
D. Erdin
Affiliation:
Institute of Animal Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH-Zentrum CLU, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
N. Künzi
Affiliation:
Institute of Animal Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH-Zentrum CLU, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Get access

Abstract

Net energy efficiencies were calculated from data of an experimental herd with respect to type of cow, lactation number, stage of lactation and diet. The trial consisted of 71 Holstein-Friesians, 71 Jerseys and 71 Holstein-Jersey F1-crosses in 1st, 2nd and > 2nd lactation. Data were collected during 210 days of lactation, from calving to week 30 and included total dry matter intake, energy content of foods, milk yield, milk solids, body weight, body condition scores and several body measurements. The cows were divided into four feeding groups : high and low energy content of roughage as well as high and low proportion of concentrates. Net energy efficiency was calculated as the ratio of milk energy to total net energy intake after subtracting energy utilized for maintenance and body tissue change. Body tissue change was calculated either via body-weight changes or body condition-score changes. Due to the distribution of the efficiencies being skewed, efficiencies were transformed applying a Box-Cox transformation. Transformed net energy efficiencies were analysed using a repeated measurements design considering the sequential nature of the observations. Mixed models with a compound symmetry structure for the variance components were applied. Final models contained the fixed effects of type, lactation number, feeding group and the covariates week of lactation and its square. Holstein-Jersey crosses were more efficient than purebreds, second lactation cows were least efficient, cows given low energy roughage and a lower proportion of concentrates were more efficient than cows on the other diets. Least efficient were the cows belonging to the high energy roughage and higher proportion of concentrates group. The coefficients of determination of the final models were between 0·357 and 0·492.

Keywords

body condition scorebody-weight changedairy cowsfood intakenet energy.
Type
Growth, development and meat science
Information
Animal Science , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , April 2001 , pp. 335 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahlborn-Breier, G. and Hohenboken, W. D. 1991. Additive and non-additive genetic effects of milk production in dairy cattle: evidence for major individual heterosis. Journal of Dairy Science 74: 592–602.Google Scholar
Box, G. E. P. and Cox, D. R. 1964. The analysis of transformations (with discussion). Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, B 26: 211–252.Google Scholar
Brade, W. 1992. Crossbreeding effects in the development of the synthetic Black and White (SMR) dairy cattle in East Germany. Livestock Production Science 32: 203–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buttazzoni, L. and Mao, I. L. 1989. Genetic parameters of estimated net energy efficiencies for milk production, maintenance and body weight. Journal of Dairy Science 72: 671–677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kirchgessner, M. 1997. Tierernährung, Leitfaden für Studium, Beratung und Praxis, tenth, revised edition. DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt (Main), Germany.Google Scholar
Littell, R. C., Henry, P. R. and Ammermann, C. B. 1998. Statistical analysis of repeated measures data using SAS procedures. Journal of Animal Science 76: 1216–1231.Google Scholar
MathSoft. 1996. S-Plus, version 3·4 for Unix, Supplement. Data Analysis Products Division, MathSoft Incorporation, Seattle, Washington, USA.Google Scholar
Moe, P. W., Tyrrell, H. F. and Flatt, W. P. 1971. Energetics of body tissue mobilization. Journal of Dairy Science 54: 548–553.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oldenbroek, J. K. 1986. The performance of Jersey heifers and heifers of larger dairy breeds on two complete diets with different roughage contents. Livestock Production Science 14: 1–14.Google Scholar
Oldenbroek, J. K. 1988. The performance of Jersey cows of larger dairy breeds on two complete diets with different roughage contents. Livestock Production Science 18: 1–17.Google Scholar
Oldenbroek, J. K. 1989. Parity effects on feed intake and feed efficiency in four dairy breeds fed ad libitum two different diets. Livestock Production Science 21: 115–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinheiro, J. C. and Bates, D. M. 1998. Version 3·0 of NLME: software for mixed-effects models. Available at: http://cm.bell-labs.com/stat/NLME or http://nlme.stat.wisc.edu.Google Scholar
Schwager-Suter, R. 1999. Efficiency of dairy cows differing in body size when feed quality is varied. Ph.D. thesis no. 13368, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Schwager-Suter, R., Stricker, C., Erdin, D. and Künzi, N. 2001. Quantification of changes in body weight and body condition scores during lactation by modelling individual 325–334.Google Scholar
Swiss Federal Research Station for Animal Production Posieux. 1994. [Recommended feeding standards and feed composition tables for ruminants. ] Third edition. LmZ, Zollikofen, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Veerkamp, R. F. and Emmans, G. C. 1995. Sources of genetic variation in energetic efficiency of dairy cows. Livestock Production Science 44: 87–97.Google Scholar
Venables, W. N. and Ripley, B. D. 1997. Modern applied statistics with S-plus, second edition. Springer, New York. The MASS library is available at: http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/MASS3/Windows.shtml or http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/MASS3/Unix.shtml Google Scholar
Walter, J. P. and Mao, I. L. 1989. Modelling net energy efficiencies as quantitative characteristics in lactating cows. Journal of Dairy Science 72: 2362–2374.Google Scholar