Repeatability of productive and reproductive traits on a dairy buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) farm in Ciego de Ávila Province, Cuba

Abstract

To estimate the repeatability values of productive and reproductive traits, 257 observations were made to 34 river buffalo cows on a dairy buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) farm, at Ruta Invasora Cattle Company, in Ciego de Ávila, Cuba. The buffalo herds were naturally bred, and were manually milked between 4:00 and 6:00 am; the animals grazed on native and introduced grass all the year. One stud was used per of 30-40 cows. The reproduction data were collected from individual control charts, which included the calving number, weight at weaning (WW), weight at breeding start (WBS), calving-calving interval (CCI), and milk production (MP). SPSS, version 23, for Windows was used to estimate the repeatability of the variables studied (weight at weaning, weight at breeding start, calving interval, and milk production), according to the variance components by the general linear model for inter and intra cow variance components. The repeatability values achieved were 0.41 ± 0.03 for WW; 0.50 ± 0.04 for IWM; 0.01 ± 0.03 for CCI; and 0.65 ± 0.06 for MP. High repeatability values for milk production occurred thanks to the absence of previous genetic selection.