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UDC 636.2.034.082

Received: May 6, 2026

Revised: May 12, 2026

Published: May 29, 2026

This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license

 

The article presents the results of research on the study of milk productivity of Swiss breed cows depending on the year and calving season in conditions of year-round maintenance on open pastures. The study was conducted at the Agro-Novoselivka 2009 private enterprise of the Kharkiv district, Kharkiv region in 2024-2025. Depending on the month and date of calving, the cows were divided into four different groups.

It was established that Swiss breed cows, due to their good acclimatization ability during the first lactation, showed high productivity in all calving seasons. The highest milk yield was recorded during winter calving 8294.0±240.0 kg, but the difference with other seasons was not significant and amounted to 1.5-1.8%. In the second lactation, the highest hope was found in winter calving and amounted to 8889.2±244.2 kg, the difference with other seasons was also not significant at the level of 1.5-1.7%. It was determined that hope in all calving seasons of the second lactation significantly exceeded the similar one in the first lactation by 7.3, 7.2, 7.2 and 6.0% (P<0.05), respectively.

The quality of milk was at a fairly high level, but no significant difference between seasons and years was established. The highest fat content was determined in milk in summer calvings 4.62 and 4.70%, protein – in the first lactation in winter calvings 3.66%, and in the second lactation – in summer 3.68% and winter calvings 3.67%. Due to the better productivity indicators of winter calving cows, their milk fat and protein production per lactation was the highest and amounted to 379.9 kg and 303.6 kg in the first lactation, and 416.1 and 326.2 kg in the second, which is 1.1-3.7% more, respectively, compared to other calving seasons.

A probable advantage of the second lactation over the first in all seasons of the year in terms of milk fat and protein production by 9.1-10.9% and 7.4-9.6%, respectively, was established.

It was proven that keeping Swiss breed cows in open pastures in the conditions of a moderately continental climate of Eastern Ukraine did not affect their productivity in different seasons of the year and can be recommended for the revival of dairy cattle breeding.

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