Pak.J.Agn Sci, Vo~45(2),2008 PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN KEPT IN BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN M. Bilal 1 , M. Younas', M.E. Babar' and M. Yaqoob' 1 Department of Livestock Management, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 2Department of Animal Production, UVAS, Lahore The Holstein Friesian has been rated as top milk producer number one cattle in the world as far as the yield is concerned. Their productive potentials are excelled in USA and other European countries. The same were imported to meet the milk demands of the developing countries like Pakistan. One thousand cattle imported from Denmark in 1977-78 by Pakistan Government, were kept at Government Dairy Farms in Balochistan Province at seven locations viz; Kalat, Khuzdar, Loralai, Mustung, Pishin, Quetta and Zhob. This study was planned to explore their productive performance regarding the birth weight (BWT), lactation length or days in milk (DIM) and milk yield (MY) kept under the local conditions of Balochistan. Effect of localities with respect to the environmental data was also explored. Overall average values for BWT ranged from 15 to 68 kg with an average of 30.12 ± 0.15, DIM were 180 to 728 with an average of 313.56 ± 3.83 and MY ranged from 1471 to 7033 lit with an average of 3731.26 ± 40.52. The effect of year, season, age and location were studied and the results revealed that the year (P<0.01) and season of birth (P<0.05) and location of the farm (P<0.01) had significant effect on BWT, while age of the dam had non-significant effect on this trait. In case of DIM and MY, season of calvinq and location of farm had non-significant effect while the effect of year of calving (P<0.01) and age of the dam (P<0.01) had significant effect on MY but no significant effect on DIM. Overall performance of these imported and farm born Holsteins was much better than the local breeds. Keywords: Holsteins, production profile, Balochistan, Pakistan INTRODUCTION Milk production is one of the most efficient processes in converting plant material into a nearly perfect food "milk" for humans. According to a report (Anonymous, 1996) an allowance of 250 ml of milk covers a major part of the daily basic nutritional needs for a child. While per capita availability of milk has been reported as 169 kg per annum in Pakistan (Pakistan Economic Survey, 2007-08), which is far less than that of several advanced countries. The low productivity of our animals is mainly because of non-descript animals, which according to some estimates are 11752 thousand head all over the country (Khan et a;., 2008). In recent past, to meet the increasing demand of milk, the government encouraged the import of exotic breeds of dairy cattle in the country with the objective of either rearing as purebred or to be used for upgrading the indigenous non-descript cattle. Holstein- Friesian was the main dairy breed imported for this purpose. There are several physiological and environmental factors which can affect the productive potential of these animals in tropical and sub-tropical environment but they still perform significantly well. These pure exotic dairy cattle were imported and maintained in the country to increase milk production, but these cattle have to be managed and maintained in a well- established scientific way to fully exploit their genetic potentials. The present project was, therefore, planned to investigate the productive performance of Holsteins imported from Denmark and kept at different Government dairy farms at seven locations in Balochistan province. This study provides a guideline for further import, breeding policy and keeping standards of such exotic breeds in the country. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data for the present study were collected from seven different Government dairy farms of Balochistan Province. These farms were located at Kalat (1), Khuzdar (2), Loralai (3), Mustung (4), Pishin (5), Quetta (6) and Zhob (7). The number of animals comprised more than 210 with 750 lactation records covering almost 18 years from 1977 to 1994. The data were processed to study the productive performance of these imported Holsteins and their farm-born daughters kept under different managemental practices and climatic conditions of the province. To study the overall performance of these imported and farm-born cattle, the productive parameters included were birth weight of calves (BWT), days in milk (DIM) and milk yield (MY). For determination of the effect of season on various parameters, the year was divided into four seasons winter (Dec-Feb), spring (Mar-May), summer (Jun- Aug), and autumn (Sep-Nov). The influence of various 254