Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:22:10.594Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Factors affecting the lactation curves of intensively managed sheep based on a clustering approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2013

Laura Elvira ,
Fernando Hernandez ,
Pedro Cuesta ,
Santiago Cano ,
Juan-Vicente Gonzalez-Martin  and
Susana Astiz
Laura Elvira
Affiliation:
TRIALVET S.L., C/Encina, 22, 28721 Cabanillas de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain
Fernando Hernandez
Affiliation:
Granja Cerromonte S.L., San Juan de la Encinilla, 05358 Ávila, Spain
Pedro Cuesta
Affiliation:
Informatics Department for Research Support, Complutense University of Madrid, Avda de la Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Santiago Cano
Affiliation:
Informatics Department for Research Support, Complutense University of Madrid, Avda de la Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Juan-Vicente Gonzalez-Martin
Affiliation:
TRIALVET S.L., C/Encina, 22, 28721 Cabanillas de la Sierra, Madrid, Spain Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Avda Pta. de Hierro s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain
Susana Astiz*
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Reproduction, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), Avda Pta. de Hierro s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
*
*For correspondence; e-mail: astiz.susana@inia.es
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study investigated factors affecting milk production and lactation curves from complete lactations of Lacaune dairy sheep. Animals were part of a single flock under intensive management and were milked twice daily starting at lambing. The results of the analyses of 7788 complete lactations showed an average total milk yield of 434±183 l from lactations 234±63 d long, with an average lambing interval of 302±65 d. A Pollott additive mathematical model was used to estimate complete lactation curves. Clustering analysis identified four lactation types among Lacaune dairy sheep differing mainly in productivity i.e. milk yield per lactation (MY) and length of lactation (DIM). The so-called SL type involved short, less productive lactations (n=2137; 27·4%; MY=222±75·5 l and DIM=182±52·9 d). The SN type involved short lactations of normal productivity (n=2039; 26·2%; MY=396±73·7 l and DIM=205±33·1 d). The LP type involved long and productive lactations (n=2169; 27·9%; MY=487±70·5 l and DIM=265±40·7 d), while the LVP type included long and extremely productive lactations (n=1443; 18·5%; MY=694±114·0 l and DIM=295±54·7 d). Sheep showing the best lactation curves were usually younger than other sheep, and they had higher yield during the previous lactation, a shorter previous dry period (55±50·4 for LP and 61±55·0 d for LVP types) and longer lambing intervals. In addition, they tended to be born in September and to lamb in March, October and December. Sheep were remarkably stable in their lactation curve behaviour: the curve type observed for the first lactation was highly likely to persist in subsequent lactations (P<0·0001). These results suggest that farmers can use the shape of the first lactation curve to guide their selection of ewes for breeding and retention on the farm, thereby improving flock productivity.

Keywords

Lacaunedairy sheeplactation curveintensive managementfactorstypes
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Dairy Research , Volume 80 , Issue 4 , November 2013 , pp. 439 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © Proprietors of Journal of Dairy Research 2013 

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

Barillet, F 1985 Amélioration génétique de la composition du lait de brebis: l'exemple de la race Lacaune [Genetic improvement of the composition of sheep milk: the example of the Lacaune breed]. Inst Natl Rech Agron. Paris-Grignon, FranceGoogle Scholar
Barillet, F, Boichard, D, Barbat, A, Astruc, JM & Bonaiti, B 1992 Use of an animal model for genetic evaluation of the Lacaune dairy sheep. Livestock Production Science 31 287–299CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barillet, F, Marie, C, Jacquin, M, Lagriffoul, G & Astruc, JM 2001 The French Lacaune dairy sheep breed: use in France and abroad in the last 40 years. Livestock Production Science 71 17–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bécue Bertaut, M & Valls i Marsal, J 2011 Manual de introducción a los métodos factoriales y clasificación con SPAD. Servei d'Estadística, p. 68. Universitat autònoma de Barcelona, BarcelonaGoogle Scholar
Bizelis, JA, Charismiadou, MA & Rogdakis, E 2000 Metabolic changes during the perinatal period in dairy sheep in relation to level of nutrition and breed II: early lactation. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition 84 73–84Google Scholar
Butler, WR, Fullenkamp, SM, Cappitello, LA & Handwerger, S 1981 The relationship between breed and litter size in sheep and maternal serum concentrations of placental lactogen, estradiol and progesterone. Journal of Animal Science 53 1077–1081CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byatt, JC, Warren, WC, Eppard, PJ, Staten, NR, Krivi, GG & Collier, RJ 1992 Ruminant placental lactogens: structure and biology. Journal of Animal Science 70 2911–2923CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cannas, A, Nudda, A & Giuseppe, P 2002 Nutritional strategies to improve lactation persistency in dairy ewes. In 8th Annual Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium. Ithaca, New York, USA, pp. 17–59Google Scholar
Capuco, AV, Ellis, SE, Hale, SA, Long, E, Erdman, RA, Zhao, X & Paape, MJ 2003 Lactation persistency: insights from mammary cell proliferation studies. Journal of Animal Science 81(Suppl. 3), 18–31CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cardenas, CS 2009 Segmentation of bovine lactation curves, during the first third of lactation via cluster and lineal discriminant analysis. Agro Sur 37 126–133Google Scholar
Carta, A, Sanna, SR & Casu, S 1995. Estimating lactation curves and seasonal effects for milk, fat and protein in Sarda dairy sheep with a test day model. Livestock Production Science 44 37–44Google Scholar
Charismiadou, MA, Bizelis, JA & Rogdakis, E 2000 Metabolic changes during the perinatal period in dairy sheep in ralation to level of nutrition and breed. I. Late pregnancy. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition 84 61–72Google Scholar
Cole, JB & VanRaden, PM 2006 Genetic evaluation and best prediction of lactation persistency. Journal of Dairy Science 89 2722–2728Google Scholar
David, I, Astruc, JM, Lagriffoul, G, Manfredi, E, Robert-Granié, C & Bodin, L 2008 Genetic correlation between female fertility and milk yield in Lacaune sheep. Journal of Dairy Science 91 4047–4052CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
El-Saied, UM, de la Fuente, LF & Primitivo, FS 2006 Phenotypic study on total and partial lifetime traits for dairy ewes. Journal of Dairy Research 73 101–108Google Scholar
Elvira, L, Hernandez, F, Cuesta, P, Cano, S, Gonzalez-Martin, JV & Astiz, S 2013 Accurate mathematical models to describe the lactation curve of Lacaune dairy sheep under intensive management. Animal Dez 20 1–9, In press. doi: 10.1017/S175173111200239XGoogle Scholar
Eyal, E, Lawi, A, Folman, Y & Morag, M 1978 Lamb and milk production of a flock of dairy ewes under an accelerated breeding regime. Journal of Agricultural Science 91 69–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabiña, D, Arrese, F, Arranz, J & Beltran de Heredia, I 1993 Average milk yields and environmental effects on Latxa sheep. Journal of Dairy Science 76 1191–1198Google Scholar
Gootwine, E & Pollott, GE 2000 Factors affecting milk production in improved Awassi dairy ewes. Animal Science 71 607–615CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartigan, JA 1975 Clustering Algorithms. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc.Google Scholar
Hernandez, F, Elvira, L, Gonzalez-Martin, JV, Gonzalez-Bulnes, A & Astiz, S 2011 Influence of age at first lambing on reproductive and productive performance of Lacaune dairy sheep under an intensive management system. Journal of Dairy Research 78 160–167Google Scholar
Hernandez, F, Elvira, L, Gonzalez-Martin, JV & Astiz, S 2012 Influence of dry period length on reproductive performance and productivity of Lacaune dairy sheep under an intensive management system. Journal of Dairy Research 79 352–360CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jamrozik, J, Fatehi, J & Schaeffer, LR 2007 Application of robust procedures for estimation of breeding values in multiple-trait random regression testday model. Journal of Animal Breeding Genetics 124 3–11CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jonas, E, Thomson, PC, Hall, EJ, McGill, D, Lam, MK & Raadsma, HW 2011 Mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) in sheep. IV. Analysis of lactation persistency and extended lactation traits in sheep. Genetics Selection Evolution 21 43:22http://www.gsejournal.org/content/43/1/22Google Scholar
Kassem, R, Owen, JB & Fedel, I 1989 Rebreeding activity in milking Awassi ewes under semi-arid conditions. Animal Production 49 89–93Google Scholar
Lebart, L, Morineau, A & Piron, M 1995 Statistique Exploratoire Multidimensionnelle. Paris: DunodGoogle Scholar
Morant, SV & Gnanasakthy, A 1989 A new approach to the mathematical formulation of lactation curves. Animal Production 49 151–162Google Scholar
Natzke, RP, Everett, RW & Bray, DR 1975 Effect of drying off practices on mastitis infection. Journal of Dairy Science 58 1828–1835Google Scholar
Oravcová, M, Margetín, M, Peškovičová, D, Daňo, J, Milerski, M, Hetényi, L & Polák, P 2006 Factors affecting milk yield and ewe's lactation curves estimated with test-day models. Czech Journal of Animal Science 51 483–490CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peralta-Lailson, M, Trejo-González, AÁ, Pedraza-Villagómez, P, Berruecos-Villalobos, JM & Vasquez, CG 2005 Factors affecting milk yield and lactation curve fitting in the Creole sheep of Chiapas-Mexico. Small Ruminant Research 58 265–273Google Scholar
Pinedo, P, Risco, C & Melendez, P 2011 A retrospective study on the association between different lengths of the dry period and subclinical mastitis, milk yield, reproductive performance, and culling in Chilean dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 94 106–115Google Scholar
Pollott, GE 2000 A biological approach to lactation curve analysis for milk yield. Journal of Dairy Science 83 2448–2458Google Scholar
Pollott, GE & Gootwine, E 2000 Appropriate mathematical models for describing the complete lactation of dairy sheep. Journal of Animal Science 71 197–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollott, GE & Gootwine, E 2004 Reproductive performance and milk production of Assaf sheep in an intensive management system. Journal of Dairy Science 87 3690–3703Google Scholar
Regli, JG 1999 Farm adapted breeds: a panel presentation of flock performance records for Lacaune dairy sheep. In Proceedings of the 5th Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium, Brattleboro, VT, USA, November 4–6, pp. 51–54Google Scholar
Ruiz, R, Oregui, LM & Herrero, M 2000 Comparison of models for describing the lactation curve of latxa sheep and an analysis of factors affecting milk yield. Journal of Dairy Science 83 2709–2719CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoknecht, PA, Nobrega, SN, Petterson, JA, Ehrhardt, RA, Slepetis, R & Bell, AW 1991 Relations between maternal and fetal plasma concentrations of placental lactogen and placental and fetal weights in well-fed ewes. Journal of Animal Science 69 1059–1063CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Soelkner, J & Fuchs, W 1987 A comparison of different measures of persistency with special respect to variation of test-day yields. Livestock Production Science 16 305–319Google Scholar
Such, X & Caja, G 1995 Résultats d'efficacité alimentaire a l'Université Autonome de Barcelone. Final Scientific Report of European Contract CAMAR No 8001-CT 91-0113Google Scholar