Linear type traits of holstein raised at some dairy cattle farm in Aydın province

In this research, milk production, reproduction and type traits of 311 headsHolstein-Friesian cows reared in 10 different dairy farms recorded to Cattle BreedersAssociation of Aydin Province were determined. Depending on the pedigree records of311 cows that were measured for type traits, heritabilities were estimated for all thesetraits by using animal model.Milk production traits like Lactation Length (LL), Lactation Milk Yield (LMY)and 305 day Milk Yield (305-gMY) are considered and the averages found in thisresearch are 322.30±2.62 day, 6,508.51±94.20 kg, 6,218.33±82.95 kg, respectively. Onthe other hand, average open days (DO) was found 115.55±3.34 days.There are two different methods for evaluating the type traits of cattle. In theGeneral Type Characteristics, dairy character, body conformation, legs and feet,mammary system and final or total score were considered. The averages estimated forthese traits are 76.03±0.21, 75.72±0.17, 75.46±0.20, 76.18±0.19 and 75.44±0.13,respectively. In the linear type traits, on the other hand, stature, dairy form, body depth,chest width, rump width, rump angle, rear legs side view, claw diagonal, hock status,rear legs set, fore udder attachment, rear udder height, central ligament, udder depth,fore teat placement, teat length and teat placement rear view were considered. Theaverages of these traits were 139.88±0.22, 6.07±0.06, 5.67±0.05, 4.98±0.05, 5.24±0.05,5.10±0.05, 5.49±0.05, 4.55±0.05, 5.09±0.07, 5.06±0.07, 4.49±0.08, 5.95±0.06,6.02±0.08, 4.40±0.07, 4.89±0.05, 5.31±0.05 and 5.68±0.07, respectively.In this research, for LL, LMY, 305-gMY and DO, the estimated heritabilitieswere 0.04±0.15, 0.23±0.12, 0.24±0.12 and 0.16±0.15, respectively. For one of theGeneral Type Characteristics, mammary system, the heritabily couldnot be estimated.However, the heritabilities for final score, dairy character, body conformation and legsand feet were found 0.22±0.14, 0.23±0.15, 0.27±0.13 and 0.30±0.15, respectively.For two linear type traits such as rear udder height and chest width, theheritabilities could not be estimated, however, for stature, dairy form, rump angle, rumpwidth, body depth, rear legs set, central ligament, udder depth, rear legs side view, hockstatus, claw diagonal, fore udder attachment, fore teat placement, fore teat length andrear teat placement the estimated heritabilities were 0.13±0.16, 0.12±0.18, 0.11±0.10,0.06±0.17, 0.10±0.12, 0.14±0.13, 0.09±0.12, 0.10±0.15, 0.17±0.15, 0.18±0.16,0.01±0.08, 0.20±0.17, 0.23±0.19, 0.31±0.17 and 0.25±0.19 respectively.In conclusion, the averages and heritabilities for type traits and milk productionand reproduction traits of Holstein-Friesian cows reared in the Aydin Province found inthis study were similar to results of other studies. For herd management, nutrition ofanimal and barn conditions, there are some important differences exist among the farmsin the region.