Genetic and environmental influences on birth weight, weaning weight and average daily gain of holstein calves in Syrian coast conditions

Abstract EN

This study was carried out at Dairy Station which belonging to the General Organization for Cattle in Latakia province, Syria, to investigate the effects of genetic and some environmental factors on birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW) and average daily gain (ADG) using data of 4055 Holstein calves during the years from 1990 to 2015.

Analysis of variance showed that year of calving had significant effect (P< 0.05) only on average daily gain, and the effect of season of calving had significant effect on birth weight and average daily gain.

Whereas, parity, gender and the interaction between parity and gender influenced significantly (P< 0.

01) all the studied traits.

The overall means for BW, WW and ADG were 34.6±0.12 kg, 96.2±0.07 kg and 684±0.002 g/day, respectively.

Heritability estimates for these traits were 0.06±0.03, 0.03±0.01 and 0.03±0.02, respectively.

It is concluded that the BW, WW and ADG were adequate under Syrian Coast Conditions.

Low heritability estimates indicated that the genetic effect was low.