Effects of Type Traits on Milk Yield and Quality in Primiparous Holstein-Friesian and Red-Holstein Cows

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of type on milk yield and quality in Holstein-Friesian (HF) and Red-Holstein (RH) cows. In this study, 120 primiparous cows constituted of 58 HF and 62 RH were used and 18 linear type traits and 5 non-linear type traits, milk yield and quality traits such as morning milk yield (MMY), average daily milk yield (ADMY), 305 days milk yield (305-dMY), fat content (FC), non-fat dry matter (NFDM) and somatic cell counts (SCC) were determined and their overall means were 13.01±0.21 kg, 26.54±0.81 kg, 8350.02±282.97 kg, 3.24±0.02%, 9.78±0.05% and 5.26±0.02 (181,970 cells/ml), respectively. As for type traits, milk yield and quality, after a stepwise regression analysis, the prominent type traits were rump width (RW) and body condition score (BCS) for MMY; RW, rear leg angle (RLA) and dairy strength (DS) for ADMY; RW, RLA, hock structure (HS) and fore udder attachment (FUA) for 305-dMY; and the fore teat length (FTL) for SCC. The MMY showed weak correlations with type traits. The correlations of ADMY with the type traits varied between -0.28 and 0.33. Only the RW positively corre-lated with the 305-dMY (r = 0.31). The FC significantly positively correlated with the body depth (BD) with r = 0.20. The result of this study suggests that RW and optimal BCS should be prioritized in selection of HF and RH cows. Furthermore, due to its strong asso-ciation with SCC, the FTL is a prominent trait for improving udder health and reducing the prevalence of mastitis in dairy cattle.