Assessing resilience in Thai multibreed dairy cattle based on milk yield variability: Strategies for breeding and management in tropical environments
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Abstract
Global warming and increasing climate variability have significantly impacted dairy production systems, particularly in tropical regions such as Thailand, where environmental stress continues to pose ongoing challenges. This study aimed to assess the resilience of Thai multibreed dairy cattle by using the natural logarithm of the variance (LnVar) of residuals from individual lactation curves as a measure of resilience. The analysis was based on 122,305 monthly test-day milk yield records from 12,030 first-lactation cows calved between 1997 and 2023. A general linear model was applied, with fixed effects including herd-year-season of calving, Holstein fraction, and age at first calving. The results revealed that herd-year-season of calving significantly affected the resilience indicator (P<0.0001), with a positive trend over time (P<0.0001). In contrast, Holstein fraction (P=0.05) and age at first calving (P=0.40) showed no clear effects. The average LnVar was –0.88±1.37, corresponding to a resilience score of 28.90±15.46%. The findings indicate that dairy cow resilience is more influenced by individual animal characteristics and farm management practices than by breed composition alone. Although the use of monthly test-day data has limitations in capturing daily variability, the LnVar indicator demonstrated strong potential as a quantitative tool for genetic selection programs. Incorporating resilience into breeding objectives could enhance the development of dairy cattle that are more adaptable to environmental fluctuations, thereby supporting the long-term sustainability of dairy production systems in tropical climates.
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References
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