An application of the integrative method for extending part lactation milk record in Mediterranean Italian buffalo reared in Caserta province

Abstract

This study was performed on 21,622 lactation of Mediterranean Italian dairy buffalo recorded by AIA with ICAR standard from 1992 to 1996 in Caserta province. The extending of lactation was performed using integrative methods (Pilla et al., 1979), taking into account the effect of lactation number per day, calving order and month of calving. The results showed that the obtained coefficient was able to extending the lactation at 270 days with good approximation also beginning from a part –lactation of 90 days. In this case, the correlation coefficient between real and estimate milk yield varied from 0.91 to 0.93 in the considered groups. Moreover, the percentage of difference between real and estimated average milk yield is not over 5%.