LONGEVITY AND REPRODUCTIVE ABILITY OF ANIMALS OF GREY UKRAINIAN AND WHITEHEADED UKRAINIAN BREEDS
Authors: Rieznykova N. L. , Polupan Yu. P. , Denysyuk O. V. , Vdovychenko Yu. V. , Pysarenko A. V. , Fursa N. M. 
Published: December 2018

On the materials of primary zootechnical recording in the herds of Grey Ukrainian (SE EF “Polyvanivka” of the Institute of Сereal Сrops of NAAS, 105 culled and 263 alive animals, and SE EF “Askania-Nova” of M.F.Ivanov Institute of Animal Breeding of Steppe Regions, 70 culled animals), and in the herd of Whiteheaded Ukrainian (“Podilskiy Gospodar” Ltd., 346 culled and 22 alive animals) one investigated longevity and reproductive ability of two cattle autochthonous breeds of Ukraine. Analysis of Whiteheaded Ukrainian cows’ culling data on 2013 (22 animals) testifies the designing of work on production increasing in herd, rather not high (20,5%) repair intensity (owing to lasting use of full-aged cows) and main herd animals’ successful health state. Besides it, main herd animals’ database analysis testifies long-living cows availability with their satisfactory reproductive ability at the age of 10–15 years old. To have higher conclusions’ reliability on population data one did longevity and reproductive ability data analysis of culled 346 Whiteheaded Ukrainian cows, which were born during 1978–1995. Analysis of productive longevity of investigated cows testified, that in the herd cows with the productive longevity in 1–5 lactations dominated (74,6%). Only 25 cows (7,2%) had 1 calving. The largest number of cows (70 animals) in the herd had 4 calvings. Because of twins (5,2% of the whole sample), the largest number of calves in a litter of one animal was 14 heads with equal distribution on sex. One calf for the whole lifetime had only 19 (5,5%) animals, while by 5–14 calves for the life were obtained from almost 40% of sample (138 heads). Unfortunately, in the herd there were cases of still-birth or abortions in litter of some animals. Such sad occasions comprise almost 15% of analysed sample. Investigation of genealogical affiliation of such cases revealed a bit higher number of abortions (2 out of 15 sample cases) and still-births (5 out of 45 in the sample) in the litter of bull Chas 59. But, one should take into account more intensive use of this bull at the cows of the herd. However, one should admit, that the majority (75%) of used in the herd bulls had no still-birth or abortion with different matches. Particularly, Okun 217 bull, though was used rather widely in the herd, had no still-births or abortions in the litter of its matches. Database analysis of culled cows of SE EF «Polyvanivka» testified, that out of 105 cows, 19 (18,1%) for lifetime had 10 and more (to 13) calves, 60 (57%) – 5–9 calves. Abortions and stillbirths were found only in young animals’ litter. Particularly, 10 heifers (9,5%) had stillbirths, and cows of the second calvings – 2 abortions. Amongst the animals of the third and elder calvings there were found no abortions and stillbirths. Amongst included into investigation cows of Grey Ukrainian breed of breeding plant «Markeevo» more, than half (64,3%) had 5 and more calvings. Cows with productive longevity 7–14 calvings makes up 52,9% of all investigated cows of the plant. All herd cows are characterized with easy (not lower 5,0 on beef cattle estimation scale) calvings. Comparative analysis of longevity of investigated authohtonous and Holstein or created at its base commercial breeds at the base of unpublished own research on breeding plant “Bortnychi” data and literature data reveals noticeably longer productive longevity of Whiteheaded Ukrainian and Grey Ukrainian cattle. Our investigations in the herds of Grey Ukrainian of breeding plant «Markeevo» showed, that average number of lifetime calvings was 6,45, of breeding plant «Polyvanivka» – 6,50, in the herd of Whiteheaded Ukrainian of «Podilskiy Gospodar» Ltd. – 4,49, that significantly exceeds the longevity of modern commercial breeds.