Genetic Analysis of Production and Reproduction Traits of Ongole Cattle in an Organized Farm of Andhra Pradesh.

Background: The knowledge and estimation of genetic and non-genetic factors on the production and reproduction traits of Ongole cattle are important to enable the breeders to design efficient conservation strategies and adopt better selection methods, management practices and culling operations. Methods: Data available on 220 Ongole cows mated to 22 sires-at the Livestock Research Station, Mahanadi, Kurnool (District), Andhra Pradesh over a period of eight years was used for the present analysis. Result: Results in the present study revealed that performance of animals was improved in lactation milk yield (LMY, 1063.33±31.13), 305 lactation milk yield (LMY, 1019.83±29.22), lactation length (LL, 266.26±5.6), less calving interval (CI, 497.95±8.58), service period (SP, 188.19±5.17) and dry period (DP, 214.79±19.6) compared to earlier reports. Parity and period have shown significant effect on all production traits and calving interval. Effect of season was non-significant on all productive and reproductive traits. Most of the heritability estimates for milk production traits were medium in range but low for reproductive traits. The correlations between productive traits and calving interval were negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]