Milk Composition and Quality of Sahiwal - Friesian Crossbred Cow Studied in Malaysia

Six groups of Sahiwal-Friesian crossbred cows, namely M50-1, M50-2, M50-3, M56, M63 and M75-1 were evaluated. In total 180 cows were used and milk collected was evaluated for composition and quality. The effect of genotypes was significant ( P ≤ 0.05 ) only for titrable acidity (TA) and milk yield (MY). The M50-1 had the highest milk yield per day (8.73 ± 1.65 kg) but this was not significantly different from the yields of M50-3, M56 and M75-1 (7.06 ± 0.84, 7.06 ± 0.96, 7.70 ± 0.82 kg), respectively. Lactation stage had significant ( P ≤ 0.05 ) effect on milk yield, fat content, solids-not fat (SNF) content, total solid (TS) content, moisture content and specific gravity (Sp. Gr). Fat content at early lactation was significantly ( P ≤ 0.01 ) lower than at middle and late lactation (3.69 vs 4.27 and 4.50, respectively). SNF content for middle lactation was significantly lower ( P ≤ 0.05 ) than that at early and late lactations. At late lactation, TS and moisture contents were significantly ( P ≤ 0.05 ) higher than those at early lactation. The range of milk composition and quality such as fat (3.96 - 4.50%), SNF (9.02 - 9.40%), TS (13.01-13.81%), moisture (86.26 - 87.07%), Sp.Gr. (1.030- 1.031), pH (6.74 - 6.91), TA (0.13 - 0.15%), MBRT (6.50 -7.40 h) belonged to normal range. M50-1, M50-3, M56 and M75-1 had higher test day milk yield. The optimum level of Friesian inheritance in combination with Sahiwal for MY appeared to be 75%, 56% and 50% with selection for milk production. The composition and quality of milk from the Sahiwal - Friesian crossbred cows met the required standard. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/agric.v11i2.17488 The Agriculturists 2013; 11(2) 58-65