Estimation Of Sire Index For Murrah Bulls For Average Daily Milk Yield

In the present study, breeding information spread over a period of 14 years from 1995 to 2008, was collected from the history-cum-pedigree sheets and milk yield registers of Murrah buffaloes maintained at four centres of Network Project on Murrah Buffalo Improvement (National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal; Central Institute for Research on Buffalo, Hisar and Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana and Choudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar). Data on first lactation traits of 832 Murrah buffaloes sired by 95 bulls were used for the study. Farm had significant effect on average first lactation daily milk yield (MY/FLL), while season and year of calving did not affect significantly in the present study. Breeding value for MY/FLL was estimated using least-squares (LS) method. The breeding value of different bulls varied from 4.683 kg in fifth and seventh set to 7.655 kg in seventh set.