Comparison of heritability estimates of first lactation fertility traits in Mehsana buffaloes

First lactation records of 3068 Mehsana buffaloes sired by 118 sires, under field progeny testing programme distributed in different 149 villages of 14 talukas maintained at Dudhsagar Research and Development Association, Dudhsagar Dairy, Mehsana over a period of 24 years (1989-2012) were used to estimate least squares means and heritability of fertility traits like, first service period (FSP), first calving interval (FCI) and daughter pregnancy rate (DPR). The least squares means of these traits were found to be 189.05 +/- 3.34 days, 472.97 +/- 2.87 days and 31.08 +/- 0.59%, respectively. Non genetic factors such as age at first calving and period of calving were found to have highly significant effect on all the traits, whereas, cluster found to be non-significant for FSP and significant for FCI and DPR. Heritability were estimated for FSP, FCI and DPR as 0.02 +/- 0.02, 0.004 +/- 0.015 and 0.095 +/- 0.031; 0.04 +/- 0.03, 0.026 +/- 0.024 and 0.089 +/- 0.032; and 0.01 +/- 0.02, 0.032 +/- 0.026 and 0.095 +/- 0.034 by LSML, BLUP-SM and BLUP-AM, respectively. BLUP-AM was found to be the best model for heritability estimation based on error variance and BLUP-AM gave highly significant and more accurate results than BLUP-SM and LSML in Mehsana buffaloes.