JDS
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Journal of Dairy Science Vol. 72 No. 1 162-166
© 1989 by American Dairy Science Association ®
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by El Bushra, O. E.
Right arrow Articles by Littell, R. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by El Bushra, O. E.
Right arrow Articles by Littell, R. C.

Genetic Effects on Dairy Calf Growth1

O. E. El Bushra2, C. J. Wilcox, J. M. Wing and R. C. Littell3

Dairy Science Department, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611

ABSTRACT

Objectives were to establish growth patterns for weight and height in dairy calves from birth to 90 d and to estimate appropriate genetic parameters. Measurements were 7943 body weights and 7005 wither heights of 752 calves. Represented over 12 yr were three breeds, 348 dams, and 115 sires; data resulted from designed calf nutrition experiments. Sources of variation considered in various least squares analyses of variance were breed, sire in breed, calf in sire in breed, sex of calf, treatment-year category, and several interactions. Repeatabilities of weights and heights between birth and 90 d were .64 and .88; heritabilities were .22 and .30; genetic and phenotypic correlations were .53 and .73. A regression equation was estimated for each calf. From these 752 equations, heritabilities of initial weight, initial height, and rates of growth in weight and height were .53, .50, .44, and .19. Genetic correlations were .81; –.07; –.05; .26; .14; .84. Selection schemes for these traits in dairy cattle should consider that although weights and heights at birth and thereafter are highly and positively correlated genetically, as are gains, birth measurements and gains to 90 d may be uncorrelated.

FOOTNOTES

1 Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Series Number 8883.

2 Agricultural Research Council, National Council for Research, Sudan.

3 Statistics Department.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1989 by the American Dairy Science Association ®.