COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE MILK PRODUCTION IN TWO ROMANIAN BLACK AND WHITE COW POPULATIONS FROM WESTERN ROMANIA

The aim of this study was to compare the milk production of the Romanian Black and White cows raised in two counties (Timis and Caras-Severin) from the western Romania. Researches were carried out on 3,579 lactations (3,110 from Timis and 469 from Caras-Severin) finished in year 2008. Results showed that cows in Caras- Severin produced significantly more milk per lactation compared to cows from Timis (p 0.05). On average, cows from Caras-Severin produced 4710.9 kg milk with 3.939% butterfat, 186.13 kg butterfat, 3.337% protein and 156.92 kg protein per normal lactation, while cows from Timis produced 4216.5 kg milk with 3.948% butterfat, 166.22 kg butterfat, 3.130% protein, and 131.22 kg protein. Differences for milk production per total lactation were lower, but still significantly different (p<0.05). Cows in Timis had longer days in milk than cows in Caras-Severin (363.7 vs. 341.2 days, p<0.001).