MILK-PRODUCTION AND COMPOSITION IN EWES O F THE IMPROVED WALLACHIAN BREED DURING MILKING PERIOD

Production of milk, fat, proteins, lactose, dry matter, utilizable dry matter and solids-not-fat (SNF) was evaluated in 177 lambing ewes of the Improved Wallachian breed (IW) in the course of 145-day milking pe riod in 1993. Milking started on 10th April after lamb weaning and ter minated on 2nd September. There were five control recordings of milk i n the milking period. Individual production of milk was determined by the methodology of milk records (MR) which is in keeping with internat ional rules of milk records (Barillet et al., 1992). Total milk output and output of milk components were calculated by CDM (centering data method). Out of the total number of lambing ewes, 48 ewes were in the first, 35 in the second, 38 in the third, 18 in the fourth, 24 in the fifth and 14 in the sixth lactation. The ewes were milked by hand afte r lamb weaning, twice a day (in the morning and in the evening) after the first and fifth weaning, three times a day (morning, noon, evening ) after the other weanings. Milk samples were taken at morning milking and they were analyzed by an infrared analyzer of Multispec type for fat, protein and lactose content. Using the determined milk components , the content of dry matter and solids-not-fat (SNF) was calculated. P roduction of utilizable dry matter was calculated as a sum of fat and protein production. STATGRAPHIC software was used for statistical proc essing of data, and computation of F-test values and correlation coeff icients. One-factor analysis of variance was used to evaluate the effe ct of lactation number on milk production and productive indicators. T ab. I shows the values of productive indicators. The average output of milk per milking period was 95.3 l, 6.4 kg of fat, 4.9 kg of proteins , 4.7 kg of lactose, 16.8 kg of dry matter, 11.3 kg of utilizable dry matter and 10.4 kg SNF. There are large differences in productive indi cators between the lambing ewes, which can be profited from in further breeding aimed at an increase in milk performance. The average daily milk production during the milking period was 657.3 mi over the whole period, with the content of fat 6.7%, proteins 5.1%, lactose 4.9%, dry matter 17.7% and SNF 10.9% (Tab. II). The lambing ewes in the third l actation (Tab. III) had the significantly highest output of milk, prot eins, lactose, dry matter and SNF (P < 0.05 and/or P < 0.001). Tab. IV shows phenotype correlations between the productive indicators and be tween the contents of milk components. A very close relationship (P < 0.001) was determined between total milk output per milking period and output of fat, protein, lactose and utilizable dry matter (r = 0.94-0 .99). The relationships between total milk output and average contents of main milk components were not mostly close, but they were negative (r < 0.3).