Estimación de la curva de lactancia mediante modelos matemáticos lineales y no lineales en búfalas colombianas

Introduction.The lactation curve of mammals can be explained by mathematic functions which allow relating milk production of a female individual through time, taking into account her physiology throughout the lactation period. Objective. To identify the mathematic functions that can explain best the curve of milk production in a population of female buffalos from La Sierra, a village in the Puerto Nare town, Antioquia, Colombia. Materials and methods. 3850 lactations were used for the study, they were divided in groups according to their number and time of births the buffalos had. Nine mathematic models of lactation curves were used, both lineal and non-lineal. The selection criteria for choosing the best model were the highest percentage of significant curves and the media of the determination coefficient. Results. The model that best adjusted the lactation curve in female buffalos was that proposed by Papajcsik and Bordero, in 1988, which adjusted the curves in all the numbers of births with all the birth époques a 100%. Conclusion. The methodology to obtain the time at the peak of the production and the production at its maximum can be a useful tool for future works.