Crossbreeding potential of red Angus and Senepol with Zebu crossbred cattle in Ninh Binh province
The objective of this study is to evaluate the reproductive performance of Zebu crossbred cows and their calves’ performance at birth when they were inseminated with Red Angus (RA) and Senepol (SE) bulls’ frozen semen. Data were collected from 276 cows at several locations in Ninh-Binh province. The traits included conception rate, gestation length, calving ease and neonatal calves’ performance. The data were analyzed using Minitab16. The nominal data were analyzed by tabulate procedure, compared by Chisquares, continuous data were analyzed by descriptive statistics or GLM procedures. The results showed that Zebu crossbred cows when inseminated with frozen semen of RA and SE bulls had conception rates of 59.59±3.53% and 54.86±4.15%, respectively. The gestation length of cows inseminated with RA was shorter than that of cows inseminated with SE (279.98±0.57 days compared to 282.65±0.81 days). The overall gestation length was averaged of 281.30±0.51 days and ranged from 266 days to 299 days. The rate of calving difficulty was low, 19.12% and 15.87% for cows insminated with RA and SE, respectively. In total, 17.56% of calvings required technical assistance. The their crossbred calves have relatively similar appearances, the calves mainly have reddish-yellow or reddish-brown body coat color; the skin color of the eyes, nose, anal area and vulva are reddish-brown or blackish-brown. SELZ and RALZ crossbred calves are more productive, SELZ crossbred calves are slightly more productive than RALZ crossbred calves. Crossbreeding between RA and SE with Zebu crossbred cows should be taken into account for beef development in Ninh-Binh province.
