EFFECT OF HERD SIZE ON SERVICE PERIOD AND CALVING INTERVAL IN CATTLE
In recent years, there have been major changes in cattle breeding in our country. Among these changes, the change in farm sizes has directly affected breeding and production capacities. Cattle breeding, which was mostly a family business with a few head until the 2000s, has turned into commercial enterprises where more cattle are raised after these years. IN 2008, 59.7% of cattle enterprises had 1-4 head of cattle and constituted 21.6% of the total cattle assets. According to TÜİK data in 2018, the rate of enterprises with 1-4 head of cattle decreased to 44.5%, and the total number of cattle decreased to 7.9%. While some productivity traits increased with the increase in herd size, some data showed a decline. In our study, the effect of cattle farm size in Aksaray province on some performance values was investigated. In our research; farm sizes were divided as 20-50, 50- 100, 100-250 and 250-500 head. Herd Average Age, Average First Calving Age, Shortest First Calving Age, Longest First Calving Age, Average Service Period (days), Shortest Service Period (days), Longest Service Period (days), Average Calving Interval (days), Shortest Calving Interval (days), Longest Calving Interval (days) and Number of Inseminations per Pregnancy, respectively; For 20-50 head; 57.27, 31.57, 21.27, 54.45, 188.62, 46.55, 625.73, 469.46, 320.00, 889.73, 1.54, for 50-100 head; 53.15, 32.92, 22.00, 65.77, 214.39, 40.62, 698.38, 499.03, 302.58, 1177.33, 1.88; For 100-250 head; 54.51, 31.58, 21.69, 74.00, 266.93, 39.06, 1255.88, 533.68, 284.75, 1544.69, 1.83 and for 250-500 head; It has been determined as 36.32, 28.26, 22.40, 46.20, 202.14, 45.60, 804.00, 427.26, 308.80, 897.20, 1.58. It is observed that as the number of cattle in the farm increases, the average age of the herd, Average Age at First Calving, Longest Age at First Calving, Average Calving Interval (days), Longest Calving Interval (days) and Number of Inseminations per Pregnancy decrease. As a result of the evaluations, it can be said that management becomes easier as the herd size increases.