Current status and prospects for improving the dairy Ayrshire cattle in the Russian Federation

Abstract

As a result of monitoring, it was found that on the average throughout Russia for 5 years, the milk yield of Ayrshire cows has grown to 1004 kg, which is 185 kg more than in the previous five years. The average increase as for breeding farms amounted to 969 kg and as for breed reproducers to 558 kg of milk. In calculating the yield by the data for 2005 to 2015, the quadratic polynomial regression equations predict the growth of productivity for all farm categories by 2.4 %, for breeding plants by +3.4% for breed reproducers by -1,3 % in 2016. When calculating the genetic trend for heifer cow productivity, the breed's population, by comparing bulls with different birth years, was revealed to have absolutely superior offspring of the bulls born in 2008. When using the daughters of these bulls, the trend ranged from +27 kg if compared with the daughters from stud bulls born in 2003, and to +403 kg from bulls born in 2007. Among the options for genetic shift calculation by the breeding value in the group of the same breeders estimated in 2013 - 2016, the most potential is a "c"-variant with the milk yield trend depending on the time interval from +19.7 to +81,0 kg. The constant and variable factors, as introduced in the calculation algorithm of the selection program, predict obtaining the Ayrshire genetic milk yield progress of +69 kg on average in the Russian Federation, and +78 kg in the Northwestern Federal District. The effect of male parents on genetic progress is 64.9 and 57.9 % in Russia and NWFD, which is consistent with the literature data. Economic performance due to the genotype was calculated using the genetic trend as per the selection program. The increase as derived from the genotype was 63194,34 thousand roubles for all livestock in the Russian Federation and 39279,24 thousand roubles in the NWFD.