Milk production and milk composition of various cattle breeds and their crosses in the North
Central Peanut Basin of Senegal have been analysed. In total, 6082 records were collected
from 1447 cows. But finally, only 1923 test-day records of milk volume were evaluated from
319 cows with 370 lactations during a longitudinal survey. A subset of 227 cows was used
to determine the milk composition of the main breed-groups that were present and which
were clustered into four groups: Indigenous zebus (Zebu Gobra; Zebu Maure), Indigenous
zebu by Guzerat (Indigenous zebu cross with 25% to 50% Guzerat), Indigenous zebu by
Bos taurus taurus
(Indigenous zebu cross with 25% to 50%
Bos taurus taurus where the
Bos
taurus taurus includes breeds such as Montbeliarde and Holstein-Friesian) and High
Bos
taurus taurus (cows with a high component of
Bos taurus taurus, typically 75% to 100% of
previous
Bos taurus taurus). The daily milk yield, cumulative milk yield of 305 days, milk
fat and protein percentages were determined for each cluster. The daily milk yield varied
from 1.43 L/day in indigenous zebus to 7.04 L/day in High
Bos taurus taurus. In general,
the daily milk yield increased with the number of parturitions. Indigenous zebus showed the
lowest 305-day milk yield (466 L and 496 L for first and later lactations, respectively) whilst
High
Bos taurus taurus cows showed the highest milk production (1408 L and 2108 L for
first and later lactations, respectively). Fat percentage increased from the primiparous to the
multiparous cows. Primiparous Indigenous zebus by
Bos taurus taurus cows showed the
highest fat content (5.10%), followed by Indigenous zebus (4.44%). The average calving
interval ranged from 519 days for Indigenous zebus by
Bos taurus taurus to 580 days for
Indigenous zebus. The average lactation length for all cows was 370 days
