Walmsley, Bradley J

Wolcott, Matthew L

Pitchford, W S

Johnston, David

Barwick, Stephen

2015

An extended procedure is described for modelling cow liveweight change over the production year for valuing cow liveweight in breeding objectives. The pattern of change, before and after trait change, is able to be approximated from breeder-described variables for any production system. Examination of seven datasets showed cow liveweight changes systematically over age in many herds and breeds. Analyses showed liveweight loss from pre-calving to mating and cow liveweight at mating both change in proportion to the liveweight of the cow pre-calving. Differences in cow liveweight pre-calving are thus larger than are the differences at mating, which affects feed costs in valuing cow liveweight at mating. Adoption of the procedure will increase the precision with which feed cost is associated with cow liveweight in beef cattle breeding objectives.

Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics, v.21, p. 13-16

9780646945545

1328-3227

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/19009

Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG)

Extended Cow Liveweight Modelling for Beef Cattle Breeding Objectives

Conference Publication

Publication