Analysis of Growth Traits in Calves of Charolais in Different Breeding Conditions
Keywords:
growth indicators, Charolais, live weight, performance testing, weaning weightAbstract
The issue was solved by the growth of 632 Charolais calves born between 2011 and 2016 from three farms in the Slovak Republic who are part of performance beef cattle testing. In our work was evaluated a live birth weight, weight at 120 days of age, weight at 210 days of age, weight at age 365 days, average daily gain from birth to 120 days of age, average daily gain between 120 and 210 days of age and average daily gain up to 365 days. Assessment factors were selected by breeder, sex of calves, calf birth year, calf birth month and sire effect. Evaluating of the live weight at birth founded the highest weight of farm A (42.92 kg), which is closest to the breed standard. Heaviest calves were born in 2016 with very high significant effect (p<0.001) on the birth weight. Male calves were heavier than heifers in single, heifer twins were also heavier. High statistical significance (p<0.001) was detected by sire. In our work we´ve founded the best weaning weight 229.11 kg in lower birth weight (33.52 kg). This indicator reduced over the years up to year 2016, when the weight raised again. Heifers reached higher values than bulls (203.74 kg compared to 177.40 kg), while the impact of this factor was statistically significant (p<0.05). The highest calves weaning weight was found in the October (224.35 kg) and the January (209.98 kg). We also investigated the correlation dependence of growth characteristics, when we found a positive correlation dependence (r = 0.03) between weaning weight and birth weight, which is statistically not significant (p>0.05).
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