a total of 260709 monthly test day milk records of 30903 first lactation holstein cows was used to determine the best function to describe the lactation curve. the records were obtained from first lactation holstein of 216 herds from 1988 to 2006 in khorasan province. the functions used in current study were wood’s incomplete gamma function, ali and schaeffer function, and legendre function of ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of milking frequency (three times daily vs. two times daily) on the lactation curve shape, partial and 305-d lactation performance in Holstein dairy cows in Iran. Data from February 2000 to December 2012 comprising 217345 lactations on 141364 cows distributed in 324 herds collected by the Animal Breeding Center of Iran were used. The mean milk...

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of birth weight (BW) on future milk production and reproductive performance in Iranian Holstein cattle. Records of Holstein cows between 1967 and 2010 were obtained from the Animal Breeding Center of Iran. Birth weights within each herd were grouped into five categories based on the standard normal distribution curves (z ≤-0.8416, -0.841...

Records for daily feed intake during lactation were available for 774 sows with 2,234 litters farrowing from May 2002 to November 2006. Genetic parameters were estimated for whole-oflactation feed intake and feed intake averaged over 5-day periods during lactation. Estimates of heritabilities and the permanent environment of the sow were 0.16±0.05 and 0.18±0.04 for total lactation feed intake a...

The sucking behaviour of lamb genotypes, selected for an increase or decrease in weaning weight and a random bred line, was studied during the first six weeks of lactation. Sucking frequency and duration were recorded as were lamb growth rates and lactation performance of the ewes. There were no apparent differences between the lines in sucking behaviour even with large variations between lines...

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with glycitein, a major soy isoflavone, during late pregnancy (starting on d 85) and lactation on antioxidative indices and performance in primiparous sows. A total of 227 gilts (Yorkshire × Landrace) were used, and after parturition, piglets were cross-fostered within treatment so that each sow suckled...

To evaluate lactation performance and changes in plasma and fecal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) concentrations in response to the supplementation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation product (SC), two dairy farms were selected. On each farm, 32 cows in early to mid lactation (21 to 140 DIM) were blocked by parity and days in milk (DIM), and randomly assigned to one of the two treatments within b...

Limits to sustained energy intake (SusEI) are important because they constrain many aspects of animal performance. Individual variability in SusEI may be imposed by genetic factors that are inherited from parents to offspring. Here, we investigated heritability of reproductive performance in MF1 mice. Food intake, milk energy output (MEO) and litter mass were measured in mothers (F0) and daught...

Ninety-six crossbred sows and gilts were used to study the effect of yeast culture (Diamond V. Mills, Cedar Rapids, IA) on apparent nutrient digestibilities and reproductive performance from d 60 of gestation through d 21 of lactation. Sows were allotted to treatment groups based on parity and BW. Four dietary treatments were made by substituting 0, .5, 1.0, or 2.0% yeast culture for wheat midd...