Impact of Management System on Milk Performance and Lactation Curve of Camel in Sudan

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.