OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF THE UDDER OF SIMMENTAL COWS

The article is devoted to possibilities of improvement of morphological characteristics and functional properties of the udder of Simmental cows. It presents the results of studies on evaluation of technological properties of the udder of cows as a whole for the herd and in the context of the main lines. The studies showed that in the herd of purebred Simmental cattle of SPK "Abodimovskiy" 52.2% of cows have a bowl-shaped udder, including 64.7% for first-calf heifers. Significant differences in the uddershape were established between the representatives belonging to Rezvyi 1016 and Florian 374 lines. Among the cows of Rezvyi 1016 line, 80.9% of animals hada cup-shaped udderin the first lactation, which is 9.5% more than among cows of Florian 374 line. As forthe second and third lactations, the difference in favor of the cows of Rezvyi 1016 line was 8.3 and 8.6%, and on average for all lactations by 11.3%. According to measurements of length, width, udder girth and depth of the fore quarters, depending on the age during lactations, cows which belong to Rezvyi 1016 line were superior to their peers of Florian 374 line by 0.9-3.0; 1.0-2.3; 3.0-5.2 and 1.1-2.0 cm, and in terms of udder volume and milk flow intensity, this superiority was 0.30-0.70 dc3 and 0.06-0.09 kg/min. The relation between the intensity of milk flow and daily milk yield is most pronounced for cows of Rezvyi 1016 line (r = + 0.479). This relation in Florian line was only r = + 0.281. The correlation coefficient between milk yield of cows for the first lactation and the volume of the udder ofRezvyi 1016 line was r = + 0.45, and of Florian 374 line only r = + 0.23, which is 0.22 units lower. The udder index of cows of Rezvyi 1016 line was 42.83%, and of Florian 374 line - 41.69%, or 1.14% less.