Effects of Farm Size on Milk Production Indices in Romanian Spotted Cows from Hunedoara County

Abstract

Researches were carried out on 1707 Romanian Spotted cows raised in farms from Hunedoara County that were enrolled in official performance control scheme. According to the number of milking cows (farm size), farms were divided into three categories small (n≤10 cows), middle (n=11 to 25 cows) and large (n>25 cows). The influence of the farm size on the daily milk yield and milk components (fat, protein, casein and lactose) was determined by using ANOVA, and lactation curve was drawn using the gamma incomplete function. Generally, the farm size had a significant influence on all studied milk indices (p<0.01). For the daily milk yield and fat percentage, the highest values were obtained in the small farms (25.50 kg milk with 3.82% fat), followed by the large farms (23.45 kg milk with 3.76% fat) and the middle farms (21.46 kg with 3.69% fat). For protein percentage and casein content, the highest values were obtained in middle farms (3.32% protein and 25.66 g/L casein) followed by small farms (3.27% protein and 25.41 g/L casein) and large farms (3.25% protein and 25.58 g/L casein). The highest values for milk lactose percentage were obtained in large farms (4.81%) followed by middle and small farms (4.78% and 4.76%, respectively). In conclusion, we can state that the farm size had an influence on daily milk yield and its chemical components, due to feeding and housing technologies employed in those farms. Small farms had the highest daily milk yield and fat percentage, middle farms’ milk was higher in protein and casein content, while large farms had the highest lactose percentage in the milk.