Growing cattle; Beef cattle; Belgian Blue; Growth pattern
Abstract :
[en] A survey was carried out to propose models of growth curves in Belgian Blue cattle less than 20 months of age and raised in commercial farms in southern Belgium. Live weight data were recorded between 1993 and 1999 from 1104 breeding heifers, and 924 growing males. The linear, polynomial group, power, logistic, Brody, Gompertz, von Bertalanffy and Richards models were used and compared. A step-wise linear growth model characterized by two periods of linear growth was also evaluated. This last model has been proposed as the reference model to characterize the growth curves of Belgian Blue cattle less than 20 months old. The animals were then ranked and divided in subgroups based on percentiles and quartiles in order to compare their performances. The subgroups performing better presented a greater homogeneity. The males ranked above the 90th percentile presented a growth rate comparable to that of young males selected for artificial insemination. Cattle ranked above the third quartile presented a growth rate comparable to that of licensed animals. When reproduction performances were related to the growth rate, it appeared that the better growing heifers were bred younger and heavier than lesser performing animals. [fr] Courbes de croissance chez des génisses de remplacement et des jeunes taurillons Blanc-Bleu Belge dans des fermes commerciales. Une étude a été réalisée en vue de présenter des courbes de croissance pour le bétail Blanc-Bleu Belge élevé intensivement dans des fermes commerciales wallonnes (Sud de la Belgique) de la naissance à l’âge de vingt mois. Des données de poids ont été obtenues entre 1993 et 1999 à partir de 1104 génisses de remplacement et 924 jeunes mâles. Différentes équations ont été ajustées et évaluées: les équations linéaire, polynomiales, puissance et logistique, les modèles de Brody, Gompertz, von Bertalanffy et Richards. Un modèle segmentaire à deux périodes de vitesse de croissance constante a été également évalué. Ce dernier modèle a été proposé comme étant la référence pour caractériser les courbes de croissance du cheptel Blanc-Bleu âgé de moins de vingt mois. Les animaux ont ensuite été classés en sous-groupes basés sur les déciles et les quartiles en vue de comparer les performances. Les sous-groupes plus performants étaient plus homogènes. Les mâles classés au-dessus du neuvième décile avaient une courbe de croissance comparable aux taureaux sélectionnés pour l’insémination artificielle. Le bétail classé au-dessus du quartile supérieur était comparable aux animaux présentés lors de concours et expertisés pour l’admission à la reproduction. Lorsque les performances de reproduction ont été reliées à la croissance, il est apparu que les génisses ayant montré les meilleures performances de croissance ont été fécondées plus jeunes et à un poids plus élevé que les animaux moins performants.
Disciplines :
Animal production & animal husbandry
Author, co-author :
de Behr, Vanessa
Hornick, Jean-Luc ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de productions animales > Nutrition des animaux domestiques
Cabaraux, Jean-François ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de productions animales > Ecologie et éthologie vétérinaires
Alvarez, Andrea
Istasse, Louis ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de productions animales > Nutrition des animaux domestiques
Language :
English
Title :
Growth patterns of Belgian Blue replacement heifers and growing males in commercial farms
scite shows how a scientific paper has been cited by providing the context of the citation, a classification describing whether it supports, mentions, or contrasts the cited claim, and a label indicating in which section the citation was made.
Bibliography
Brown J.E., Fitzhugh H.A., Cartwright T.C. (1976) A comparison of nonlinear models for describing weight-age relationships in cattle. J. Animal Sci. 42:810-818.
Dagnelie P. 2nd Edition. Théorie et méthodes statistiques, applications agronomiques , Presses Agronomiques de Gembloux, Gembloux, Belgium, 463 pp.; 1975, 2.
Dagnelie P. Analyse Statistique à Plusieurs Variables, Presses Agronomiques de Gembloux, Gembloux, Belgium, 362 pp.; 1975.
De Behr V., Gérard O., Evrard M., Raskin P., Istasse L. (1998) Suckler beef production in Belgium: Reproduction data. 49th Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production 203.
Fitzhugh H.A. (1976) Analysis of growth curves and strategies for altering their shape. J. Animal Sci. 42:1036-1051.
France J., Dijkstra J., Dhanoa M.S. (1996) Growth functions and their application in animal science. Ann. Zootechnie 45:165-174.
France J., Thornley J.M.H. Mathematical Models in Agriculture, Butterworths, London, UK, 335 pp.; 1984.
Gérard O., Evrard M., De Behr V., Dufrasne I., Istasse L. (1999) Belgian Blue cattle growth and reproduction as influenced by management. 50th Annual Meeting of the European Association for Animal Production 202.
Goonewardene L.A., Berg R.T., Hardin R.T. (1981) A growth study of beef cattle. Can. J. Animal Sci. 61:1041-1048.
Hanset R., Detal G., Michaux C. (1980) Normes de croissance (poids et taille) en race Blanc-Bleu Beige. Les Elevages Belges 10:5-9.
Hanset R., Michaux C., Detal G. (1988) Growth study of A.I. sires of the Belgian Blue cattle breed. Ann. Médecine Vétérinaire 132:577-591.
Nadarajah K., Marlowe T.J., Notter D.R. (1984) Growth patterns of Angus, Charolais, Charolais X Angus and Holstein X Angus cows from birth to maturity. J. Animal Sci. 59:957-966.
Robelin J., Tulloch N.M. (1992) Patterns of growth of cattle. World Animal Science Production - System Approach, Beef Cattle Production. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 485 pp.; .
SAS/STAT User's Guide, Version 6, Statistical Analysis Systems Institute Inc, Cary, NC, USA, 846 pp.; 1989.
Zar J.H. Biostatistical Analysis, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA, 661 pp.; 1996.
Similar publications
Sorry the service is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later.
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. Read more
Save & Close
Accept all
Decline all
Show detailsHide details
Cookie declaration
About cookies
Strictly necessary
Performance
Strictly necessary cookies allow core website functionality such as user login and account management. The website cannot be used properly without strictly necessary cookies.
This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.
Performance cookies are used to see how visitors use the website, eg. analytics cookies. Those cookies cannot be used to directly identify a certain visitor.
Used to store the attribution information, the referrer initially used to visit the website
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Websites use cookies to help users navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. Cookies that are required for the website to operate properly are allowed to be set without your permission. All other cookies need to be approved before they can be set in the browser.
You can change your consent to cookie usage at any time on our Privacy Policy page.