Abstract:
This study was carried out to determine the effect of management systems on milk
production performance and lactation curve of camel in Sudan. Records of 22
lactating she-camels covered the period between 2012- 2014 were obtained, of which
15 records from Camel Research Centre (CRC) and 7 records from Tumbool Camel
Research Center farm (TCRC). Camels of CRC were assigned to semi intensive
management, while camels of TCRC were allocated in intensive system management.
The lactation curve was estimated according to Wood function. T test was performed
to assess the impact of the management systems on production performance and
lactation curve parameters. The results revealed that averages total milk yield, daily
milk yield and lactation length were 1378.00 litter, 3.89 litter and 347.45 days,
respectively. The results indicated that the intensive system had significantly (P<0.01)
higher total milk yield than semi intensive system (2386.29 liter versus 907.00 liter),
daily milk (6.22 liter versus 2.80 liter) and insignificantly lactation length (391.00
versus 328 days). The study showed significant and positive phenotypic correlations
among milk production traits. Moreover, the study determined the lactation curve
parameters, α (initial milk yield) was 4.21 and 2.10 in intensive system and semi
intensive system, respectively; the corresponding values of β (increasing slope) were
1.00 and 0.86; the corresponding values of γ (decreasing slope) were -0.08 and -0.08;
time to reach peak yield (weeks) were 11.72 and 11.23; and corresponding values of
determination factors (R2) were 0.64 and 0.74, respectively. The study concluded that
the intensive system had greater milk performance, and the lactation curve model
(incomplete gamma) used in this study was suitable and appropriate.
