Research Article

The effect of dairy cattle management systems on milk yield, composition and somatic cell count

JanMiciński, Janina Pogorzelska

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 10(3), 2011, 55‒64

Abstract. The study was conducted on two family farms (herdsAand B). The experimental materials comprised Polish Holstein-Friesian cattle raised in 2006–2009. The objective of this study was to compare SCC, the yield and composition of milk from Holstein-Friesian Black-and-White cows kept in the tie-stall and free-stall system for four years. The analysis indicates that cows housed in a tie-stall barn (herdA) were characterized by higher milk performance than cows kept in a freestall barn (herd B).Milk yield was correlated with SCC in milk in both herds.Yield increase in the Aherd was connected with the SCC decrease. Such dependence has not been found in the herd B.

Keywords: cell count, dairy cattle, drymatter, fat,milk yield, protein, somaticmilk composition, urea