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Inheritance of Persistency of Lactation

Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station

Abstract

Three heritable characters govern production in dairy cattle. These characters are maximum daily milk yield, fat content of the milk and the stimulus for persistent milk production.

Eckles (1) showed the typical lactation curve with dairy cows to attain its maximum height a few weeks after the cow has freshened. This is followed by a gradual decrease in daily milk yield, with a sharper decline after the fifth month of gestation. McCandlish (2) and Weaver (3) presented data on the milk and butterfat production of scrub, grade and purebred dairy cows, substantiating the form of the lactation curve, and showing its heritability. Gaines (4) concluded from a study of the Holstein and Guernsey advanced registries that persistency of lactation is inherited through the dam. Petersen (5) showed that with Jerseys the sire has an important part in transmitting persistency of lactation to his female offspring.

Presentation of Data

Recently, a study has been made of the characteristic lactation curves of cows kept under similar conditions in the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station dairy herd.