ZOOTECHNICAL INDICES AND PRODUCTIVITY INDICATORS FOR DUAL-PURPOSE SYSTEMS

Abstract

The objective was to determine the zootechnical indices and productivity indicators and their impact on the productivity of the production system. The work was carried out in Colón, East Panama and Darién and the information was obtained from a survey applied to 20 farms. The zootechnical indices evaluated were: birth rate (BR), calf mortality rate (CM), calving interval (CI), open days (OD), age at first service (AFS), age at first calving (AFC), lactation duration (LD), birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW) and cow-milking: inventory ratio (MC/I). The productivity indicators considered were: production/cow/day (PCD), lactation productivity (LP), milk production/year (MP/year), milk production/ha (MP/ha), kg of meat/year (MP/year) and kg of meat/ha (MP/ha). The analysis was carried out using a basic statistical design and multivariate analysis (MA) was used for productivity indicators. The indices were as follows: BR: 25.9% (±16.1), CM: 3.90% (±11.6), BW: 40.12 (±6.83 kg); WW 124.42 (±16.19 kg), CI: 424.67 (±205.57 days), OD: 151.0 (±88.9), AFS: 19.66 months, AFC:  28.6 months, LD:  223.75 (±25.59 days), MC/I: 27% (±14%). The MA allowed the formation of 5 groups, of them, number 5 presented the best productive indicators with a PCD of 6.46 L (±1.42), LP 1,479.06 L (±332.17), MP/year 48,666.67 (±8,429.31), MP/ha 718.65 L (±579.47). It is also one of the groups with the highest MP/year (5,307.12 ±4,833.71) and MP/ha with 145.45 kg (±57.53). The results allow us to conclude the need to improve zootechnical indices and indicators to achieve the sustainability of these systems.