The Effect of Non-Genetic Factors on the Linear Type Traits in Brown Swiss Cows Reared in the Eastern Region of Turkey

The study was carried out to investigate the magnitude of non-genetic factors affecting linear type traits in Brown Swiss cattle. For this purpose, 474 observations for the 16 linear type traits on 135 cattle were made. Statistical model used in this research included fixed effects of herd, parity, scorer, stage of lactation, season at classification. Additionally, the age at classification was included to the model as linear and quadratic covariates. Average linear scores for chest width, body depth, angularity, foot angle, rear leg (side view), rear leg (rear view), rump angle, rump width, fore udder attachment, rear udder attachment width, rear udder attachment height, teat placement (rear view), teat placement (side view), teat length, central ligament and udder depth were 5.5 +/- 0.1, 6.1 +/- 0.1, 5.2 +/- 0.1, 4.7 +/- 0.1, 4.4 +/- 0.1, 4.4 +/- 0.1, 5.6 +/- 0.1, 5.0 +/- 0.1, 5.8 +/- 0.1, 5.4 +/- 0.1, 6.1 +/- 0.1, 5.1 +/- 0.1, 4.1 +/- 0.1, 5.8 +/- 0.1, 5.8 +/- 0.1, 6.6 +/- 0.1 respectively. Scorers did not have significant effect on all type traits except for the body depth and rear udder attachment width (P<0.01). On the other hand, herd, parity, stage of lactation as well as season at classification affected significantly most of the linear type traits. The linear and quadratic effects of age at classification on the most of linear type traits were also significant. Phenotypic correlations among the linear type traits were in low to medium range.