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Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 57 No. 3 323-327
© 1974 by American Dairy Science Association ®
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Birth Weight and Gestation Period in Purebred and Crossbred Dairy Cattle1

T. R. Batra2 and R. W. Touchberry3

Department of Dairy Science, University of Illinois, Urbana 61801

ABSTRACT

Data consisted of birth weights and gestation periods of 478 live, single-birth calves born in generations 4 and 5 of the Illinois crossbreeding experiment. The mathematical model included effects of breed groups, sires within breed groups, parity, sex of calf, and age of dam at calving as a covariate. For the two generations, crossbreds averaged 35.9 kg whereas purebreds averaged 34.6 kg; thus, crossbreds were 3.8% heavier than purebreds. The gestation period of crossbreds was 1.2 days shorter than that for purebreds. Male calves were 2.82 kg heavier and were carried 1.34 days longer than females. There were significant differences between the breed group means for birth weight and gestation period for both generations 4 and 5. The effect of parity and age of dam at calving were not significant in either generation.

FOOTNOTES

1 Data for this study came from the dairy cattle crossbreeding project, which was a cooperative project between the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station and the Dairy Cattle Research Branch AHRD, ARS, USDA. This project was a contributing project to the North Central Regional Project NC — 2, Improvement of dairy cattle through breeding.

2 Present address: Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

3 Present address: Department of Animal Science, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101.






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Copyright © 1974 by the American Dairy Science Association ®.