Improving the assessment of nutritional activity of cows under industrial technologies

Research was carried out to develop a method for assessing cows based on the nutritional activity index. The research was carried out at the FBEI HE Kazan SAVM and farm "Mukhametshin Z.Z." Republic of Tatarstan on Holstein dairy cows. The method for assessing cows based on the nutritional activity index includes taking into account elementary acts of behavior based on the time spent on feed consumption and chewing activity per day, and also includes taking into account milk productivity. In this case, the nutritional activity index is determined as the ratio of daily milk yield to the sum of time spent on feed consumption and chewing activity. After assessing each animal according to the nutritional activity index, find the arithmetic mean and standard deviation of this indicator for the group of animals being assessed; if the nutritional activity index is greater than the arithmetic mean for the group being assessed by 0.5 sigma (M + 0.5σ), they are assigned to animals with a high index of nutritional activity, less than the arithmetic mean value for the assessed group by 0.5 sigma (M - 0.5σ) – with a low index of nutritional activity, with an intermediate value – the average index of nutritional activity. The proposed method for assessing cows based on the nutritional activity index makes it possible to form a breeding core and increase milk yield over 305 days of lactation by 9.8-21.4 %.