• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.3.1-3.7
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• 2017

Background: The modelling of lactation curve provides guidelines in formulating farm managerial practices in dairy cows. The aim of the present study was to determine the suitable non-linear model which most accurately fitted to lactation curves of five lactations in 134 Gir crossbred cows reared in Research-CumDevelopment Project (RCDP) on Cattle farm, MPKV (Maharashtra). Four models viz. gamma-type function, quadratic model, mixed log function and Wilmink model were fitted to each lactation separately and then compared on the basis of goodness of fit measures viz. adjusted $R^2$, root mean square error (RMSE), Akaike's Informaion Criteria (AIC) and Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC). Results: In general, highest milk yield was observed in fourth lactation whereas it was lowest in first lactation. Among the models investigated, mixed log function and gamma-type function provided best fit of the lactation curve of first and remaining lactations, respectively. Quadratic model gave least fit to lactation curve in almost all lactations. Peak yield was observed as highest and lowest in fourth and first lactation, respectively. Further, first lactation showed highest persistency but relatively higher time to achieve peak yield than other lactations. Conclusion: Lactation curve modelling using gamma-type function may be helpful to setting the management strategies at farm level, however, modelling must be optimized regularly before implementing them to enhance productivity in Gir crossbred cows.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.890-894
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• 2002

The accuracy of the gamma function to describe lactation curve of Yankasa ewes was investigated using milk production data obtained from 168 ewes with either complete or incomplete 84 day lactation records. Ewes were daily hand milked after over-night separation from lamb and thorough disinfection of the udder. The daily milk yield on the average was estimated from the weekly total yield. The effect of type of birth, parity, season of birth and lactation length on the components of lactation curve (a, b, c and s) were analysed by least-square procedures. All factors except parity significantly (p<0.01) influenced the curve parameters. The goodness of fit of the function did not differ between the two classes of varying duration of lactation; incomplete lactation however, showed a lower persistency and as expected lower level of production. Correlations ($r_p$) between lamb weight gain and milk yield using the weight records from lamb weighed at weekly intervals indicated a high and positive relationship in the early lactation that decreased in intensity as the lactation advanced.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.1119-1126
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to compare the goodness of fit of four lactation curve models: Wood's Gamma model (WD), Wilmink (WL), and Pollott's multiplicative two (POL2) and three parameters (POL3) and to determine the environmental factors affecting the complete lactation curve of F1 dairy sheep under organic management. A total of 5,382 weekly milk yields records from 150 ewes, under organic management were used. Residual mean square (RMS), determination coefficients ($R^2$), and correlation (r) analysis were used as an indicator of goodness of fit for each model. WL model best fitted the lactation curves as indicated by the lower RMS values (0.019), followed by WD (0.023), POL2 (0.025) and POL3 (0.029). The four models provided total milk yield (TMY) estimations that were highly correlated (0.93 to 0.97) with observed TMY (89.9 kg). The four models under estimated peak yield (PY), whereas POL2 and POL3 gave nearer peak time lactation estimations. Ewes lambing in autumn had higher TMY and showed a typical curve shape. Higher TMY were recorded in second and third lambing. Season of lambing, number of lambing and type of lambing had a great influenced over TMY shaping the complete lactation curve of F1 dairy sheep. In general terms WL model showed the best fit to the F1 dairy sheep lactation curve under organic management.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.8.1-8.14
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• 2016

In this research data representing 72,946 primiparous cows from 724 herds with 638,063 total test day records calved between 2001 and 2011. These data were analysed to determine the effect of age at first and season of calving on parameters of the Wood lactation curve. Also, genetic trend of the lactation curve parameters in different calving years were evaluated. The results indicate that the highest rate of atypical lactation curve was related to cows that calved in summer (28.05 %). The maximum phenotypic relationship between initial milk yield and total 305-d milk yield was observed in cows calved in spring (0.40). The role of peak yield is more than peak time on 305-d total milk yield in primiparous Holstein. One month increase in age at first calving from 18 to 26 month raised 305-d milk yield by around 138 kg and from 27 to 32 month decreased by 61 kg. The persistency of lactation between 101 and 200 days is higher than that of 201-305 days. Our results indicate that the shape of lactation curve is largely dependent on the season of calving (higher level of milk production in cows which calved in autumn and winter). The heritabilities of parameters of lactation curve and persistency measures were low. The genetic trends for peak time, peak yield and 305-d milk yields were positive and estimated to be 0.019, 0.021 and 8.13 kg/year respectively. So the range from 24 to 26.5 month of calving is the optimum calving time in primiparous Holstein for maximizing 305-d milk yield.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.949-956
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• 2021

Objective: This study was focused on the estimation of parameters of Wood's model and description of the lactation curve using the cows which were lactated over 24 months on the first lactation. Methods: The database included 1,333 pure-bred dairy Simmental primiparous cows which lactated for 24 months (732 days). The initial dataset entering the procedure of assessment of parameters of Wood's function included 35,826 milk yield records. Milk yield was recorded throughout lactation, with the earliest record taken on day 6 and the latest on day 1,348 of lactation. This dataset was used for the assessment of parameters a, b, c of Wood's model using the non-linear statistical procedure. These parameters were estimated for different length of lactation. The assessed parameters were used for calculation of some characteristics of lactation curves. Results: The lowest value of a parameter (15.2317) of Wood's model of lactation curve was found out in lactations up to 305 days long, contrary to b and c parameters which were highest in those lactations (0.1029 and 0.0015, respectively). The maximum value of a parameter (17.4329) was found out in lactations up to 640 days long, unlike b and c parameters which were minimal in those lactations (0.0603 and 0.0010, respectively). Conclusion: It can be concluded that the parameters of Wood's model and the shape of lactation curve are changing with the growing number of milk yield records. Also, the assessed parameters revealed a significant milk production potential after 305 days of lactation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.277-286
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• 2000

A total of 21,441 milking records of biweekly test-days were collected from six dairy farms of Almarai company, Saudi Arabia to determine the effect of days open on lactation curve and milk production during the period of 1991 to 1996. These records included cows calved in two seasons: winter, for cows calved from October to March and summer, for cows calved from April to September. Season of calving did not have a significant effect on the last biweekly points of the curve, and this is due to the effect of the evaporative cooling system. Days open had a marked effect on milk production. The difference in milk yield between cows with days open <60 days and days open >150 days was 1,021 liter. Moreover, the difference in milk yield at early lactation decreased from 1,021 to 829 liter as the days open increased from 75 to 125, due to the decrease in the effect of conception on milk production with advancing lactation. These data also showed that the middle part of the curve (105-255) was the least affected part by the variation in days open because the pregnancy effect become more obvious after five months of conception. These data showed that the dairy cattle produce more than 70% of the milk yield during the first 250 days of the lactation curve.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.610-615
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• 2011

We examined the correlations between lactation curve shape, including persistency and changes in body condition score (BCS) during early-stage (0 to 30 days in milk (DIM)), nadir-stage (31 to 90 DIM), and late-stage (91 to 240 DIM) lactation in 191 first-lactation cows. Data used were first-parity BCS records, scored twice every month after calving, and daily milk yields. Individual lactation curves were depicted by the Wilmink function. Lactation persistency was defined as the difference in estimated milk yields between 240 DIM and 60 DIM. Changes in BCSs in the early and late stages were defined as linear regression coefficients. There were no significant correlations between traits for lactation curve shape and change in BCS in early-stage lactation. Peak yield and total milk yield were negatively correlated with BCSs in nadir- and late-stage lactation and with BCS change in late-stage lactation, suggesting that cows with high lactation yields had low body reserves and health status in mid- to late lactation and had delayed recovery of body reserves. Lactation persistency was positively correlated with change in BCS in late-stage lactation, suggesting that cows with high lactation persistency tended to be healthy and to recover their body reserves well in late lactation.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.590-596
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• 1999

The effect of evaporative cooling in alleviating seasonal variations of dairy cows raised in AlMarai Dairy Farms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were studied using milking record collected during the period of 1991 to 1996. The data included 13303 and 8137 records represented winter and summer calving seasons. Evaporative cooling system improved production for cows calved in summer. The least square means of milk yield were 9631 and 9556 liter for cows calved in winter and summer seasons but no significant differences (p<0.05) were observed between the yield of two seasons. No significant effect of season on calving under evaporative cooling on most of the biweekly points of the lactation curve. The farm, parity and milk level showed a significant effect on the shape of the curve. Functions of the lactation curve like initial yield, 305 MY, peak yield, time of peak and duration were estimated for each phase of the lactation curve.

• Korean Journal of Animal Reproduction
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.31-35
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• 1982

A study of 188 lactations of Holstein cows in Gwangju area was undertaken to establish the shape of lactation curve during the period from October in 1980 to January in 1982. The Gammafunction described by Wood(1967) was fitted to the lactations observed. The results obtained in the present study were summarized as follows; 1. The lactation curve of the 188 lactations was expressed by the equation based on Wood's model (1967) as follows; Yn=24.5m0.0762e-0.0944n(R2=0.99) 2. The lactation curves by parity were represented by the equations as follows; Yn=18.81n0.1486e-0.0741n(R2=0.98)……………parity 1 Yn=26.51n0.1161e-0.1200n(R2=0.96)……………parity 2 Yn=26.95n0.2804e-0.1703n(R2=0.99)……………parity 3 Yn=27.92n0.1429e-0.1427n(R2=0.98)……………parity 4 Yn=22.61n0.1985e-0.1211n(R2=0.94)……………parity 5 3. The lactation curves by calving seasons were represented by the equationes as follows; Yn=27.05n0.0739e-0.1005n(R2=0.98)……………spring Yn=23.08n0.2040e-0.1202n(R2=0.98)……………summer Yn=26.81n0.0460e-0.1134n(R2=0.98)……………autumn Yn=23.40n0.1299e-0.1101n(R2=0.95)……………winter

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.35 no.10
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• pp.1499-1511
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• 2022

Objective: This study was aimed to estimate the genetic parameters, including genetic and phenotypic correlations, of milk yield, lactation curve traits and milk composition of Thai dairy cattle from three government research farms. Methods: The data of 25,789 test-day milk yield and milk composition records of 1,468 cattle from lactation 1 to 3 of Holstein Friesian (HF) and crossbred HF dairy cattle calved between 1990 and 2015 from three government research farms in Thailand were analysed. 305-day milk yield was estimated by the Wood model and a test interval method. The Wood model was used for estimating cumulative 305-day milk yield, peak milk yield, days to peak milk yield and persistency. Genetic parameters were estimated using linear mixed models with herd, breed group, year and season of calving as fixed effects, and animals linked to a pedigree as random effects, together with a residual error. Univariate models were used to estimate variance components, heritability, estimated breeding values (EBVs) and repeatability of each trait, while pairwise bivariate models were used to estimate covariance components and correlations between traits in the same lactation and in the same trait across lactations. Results: The heritability of 305-day milk yield, peak milk yield and protein percentage have moderate to high estimates ranging from 0.19 to 0.45 while days to peak milk yield, persistency and fat percentage have low heritability ranging from 0.08 to 0.14 in lactation 1 cows. Further, heritability of most traits considered was higher in lactation 1 compared with lactations 2 and 3. For cows in lactation 1, high genetic correlations were found between 305-day milk yield and peak milk yield (0.86±0.07) and days to peak milk yield and persistency (0.99±0.02) while estimates of genetic correlations between the remaining traits were imprecise due to the high standard errors. The genetic correlations within the traits across lactation were high. There was no consistent trend of EBVs for most traits in the first lactation over the study period. Conclusion: Both the Wood model and test interval method can be used for milk yield estimates in these herds. However, the Wood model has advantages over the test interval method as it can be fitted using fewer test-day records and the estimated model parameters can be used to derive estimates of other lactation curve parameters. Milk yield, peak milk yield and protein percentage can be improved by a selection and mating program while days to peak milk yield, persistency and fat percentage can be improved by including into a selection index.