Families of Brown Swiss cows in breeding farms of the Smolensk region

Increasing the dairy productivity of cows is the main goal of breeding work in dairy cattle breeding. The main method of purebred cattle breeding is considered to be breeding by lines and families. In the herds of five padigree farms of the Smolensk region for the breeding of the Brown Swiss breed of cattle 160 main families with a total number of 2285 cows have been established. The number of families on farms ranged from 17 to 40 with the number of animals from 235 to 502, in each. The main indicators of dairy productivity of cows in individual families are determined, the most promising for further breeding work are identified. The best families were formed in the breeding reproducer of the SPC "Druzhba" with record indicators of dairy productivity of cows for the breed. So in the Nevesta's family 917 cows were received: Zlata 2259 (3 – 305 – 8953 -3.94% – 3.31%); Dona 313 (2 – 305 – 11184 – 3.76% – 3.64 %). The Index of genetic similarity between animals of individual families calculated using immunogenetic markers revealed significant differences in the hereditary characteristics of the compared groups.