Changes in the content of milk components during lactation and their influence on lamb rearing of Finnsheep

Authors

• K. M. Charon Institute of Biological Bases of Animal Breeding, Warsaw Agricultural University, 05—840 Brwinów, Poland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.72325

Abstract

The analysis of milk component content determined by Milkoscan apparatus was carried out on 59 ewes of Finnsheep (a total of 880 records for each component). Lactations differed in fat (F), protein (P) and lactose (L) content, but the differences were statistically significant (P<0.01) only in some cases (mostly for the 2nd and 4th lactations). The monthly average content of the analysed milk component varied significantly between 1, 2 and 3 months of lactation, but as a rule the F and L contents were highest at the beginning of lactation and then a decrease was observed, whereas in the case of P the opposite tendency was observed. The contents of F, P and L for the 2nd and 4th lactations within ten-day periods confirmed these tendencies. The correlations between the milk component content and weight gains of lambs in the suckling period were 0.33, 0.28 and —0.22, for the content of F, P and L, resp. The correlations between the number of lactation and milk composition were respectively for F, P and L: 0.25, 0.46 and 0.41.