The effect of non-genetic factors on Bali Cattle ( Bos javanicus) growth traits

Abstract

Bali cattle (Bos javanicus) is one of the native cattle of Indonesia, which have excellent performance though reared in hot tropic condition with low quality of feed. As generally known, livestock performance is influenced by genetic and non-genetic such as environmental factors. Therefore, this study aims to determine the non-genetic factors on growth traits of Bali cattle. The material used in this study was Bali cattle that participated in the progeny test program, consisting of 20 bulls, 122 cows and 176 calves born three years in row. The data included sex, birth season, mating system, parity, and data on growth traits which included: birth weight (BW), weaning weight at 205 days (WW205), yearling weight at 365 days (YW365) and mature weight at 730 days (MW730). Data were then analyzed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The result shows that BW, YW365 and MW730 were influenced by birth season and sex (p<0.05), and WW205 was influenced by sex and parity (p<0.05). Based on the result, we concluded that the performance of the Bali cattle population in this study was influenced by non-genetic factors that are birth season, sex and parity affect the growth traits of Bali cattle.