Venkata Seshaiah, Ch(MAJOR)Asha Latha, PVinoo, RBALA SAMPATH KUMAR, B2018-08-032018-08-032018-04http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810063251THESESABSTRACT : The present research was carried to study the association of morphometric characters with certain economic traits in Ongole cattle to predict the production and reproduction performance in selection of dairy type of cows. A total 147 Ongole cattle having different parity and stage of lactation were assessed individually for various morphological and morphometric characters and the data was recorded and analyzed statistically by General Linear Model and simple arithmetic calculations. The mean body length, height at withers, heart girth, length of neck, length of shoulders, length and width of fore head and udder in Ongole cattle were 138.10 ±1.10, 141.03 ± 0.63, 171.00 ± 1.35, 50.20 ± 0.43,54.52 ± 0.37, 53.76 ± 0.45 and 35.57 ± 0.41 and 37.83 ± 0.45 and 17.99 ± 0.28, respectively. In Ongole cattle, the per cent of goaty udders are highest (59.18), followed by bowl (21.08) and tucked up (19.73) type and the per cent of cylindrical teats are highest (57.82), followed by funnel (38.09) and bottle (4.08) type. Among various horn patterns, LHDB (25.17%) horn patterns are highest followed by SHDS (23.81%) and LHDS (22.45) while MHDS and Polled (8.16%) type are lowest. The HG was positively and significantly (P<0.01) correlated with LMY, LL, PY and the NL was positively and significantly (P<0.01) correlated with LL, PY. The UL was positively and significantly (P<0.01) correlated with PY and the UW was positively and significantly (P<0.01) correlated with LMY. The cows with bowl shaped udders had significantly (P<0.01) higher LMY than the cows with goaty and tucked up udders. Among udder shapes, the LMY was significantly (P<0.01) higher in goaty shape udder cows than tucked up type of udder cows. Significant difference was not observed in LMY, LL and PY among the cows with various horn patterns. Significant difference was also not observed in CI, SP and DP among the cows with various udder, teat shapes and horn patterns. Highly significant (P<0.01) and positive correlations were observed between lactation milk yield and heart girth (0.269). The heart girth (0.294), LN (0.271) and udder measurements viz., udder length (0.312), udder width (0.316) had significant correlation with peak yield. The regression coefficients between udder width, heart girth and LMY and heart girth, neck length with peak yield were found to be significant ((P<0.05). From the R2 values, it can be inferred that heart girth and udder width significantly influenced lactation milk yield. Heart girth and length of neck has significantly influenced peak yield. Hence, all these three measurements are good indicators of prediction of production parameters in development of score card for dairy type Ongole cattle.ennullThesis