Milk production of White Fulani and Borgou cows in traditional breeding system conditions of Benin

摘要

MilkproductionperformancesofbovinebreedsinBeninarenotmuchknown.Thus,thepresentstudyaimsevaluatingmilkproductionpotentialofmainindigenouscattlebreedsraisedintraditionalbreedingsystem:WhiteFulaniandBorgou.So,thequantityofmilkwascollectedon30Borgouand78WhiteFulanicowsraisedinthesuburbanareaofParakou.Themilkwascollectedonceaweekduring11monthsoflactation.TheWhiteFulanicowspresentedanaveragemilkproduction(1.45±0.13l)higher(p=0.02)thanBorgoucows(0.99±0.19l),throughoutthelactationperiod.Thetotaldailymilkproductionfollowedthesametrend(p=0.02).Moreover,fora6monthperiod,milkproductionincreased(p=0.03)fromthe1sttothe4thcalvingrankinBorgoucattle.Thisproductionhasdecreasedfromthe5thrankoflactation.ThesametrendswereobservedwithWhiteFulanicattle.Thecowsthatcalvedinrainyseasonhadabetter(p=0.02forWhiteFulani)productionthanthosewhohadgivenbirthinthedryseason.Theseresultsprovidepreliminaryinformationfortheestablishmentandsuccessofabreedingprogram.