Livestock Production Research Institute, Bahadarnagar, Okara, Pakistan

Abstract

Data on 202 records of Nili-Ravi buffalo heifers kept at the Livestock Experiment Station Bahadarnagar, Okara, Pakistan for the period 1994 to 2003, were analyzed to study the genetic and phenotypic correlations among four traits including age at maturity, weight at maturity, age at first conception and weight at first conception. The overall means (± SE) for ages at maturity and first conception were 1166 ± 15.60 and 1311 ± 18.42 days, respectively. The corresponding values for weights were 403 ± 4.58 and 439 ± 4.17 kg. The genetic correlations (multivariate analysis) for age at maturity with; weight at maturity, age at first conception and weight at first conception were 0.49, 0.88 and 0.07, respectively. The corresponding values for phenotypic correlations were 0.48, 0.79 and 0.37. The genetic and phenotypic correlations among other traits (weight at maturity with; age at first conception, weight at first conception: age at first conception with weight at first conception) were also estimated from multivariate (tetravariate) analysis.

Key words: Buffalo heifers, sexual maturity, body weight, genetic and phenotypic correlations.