Exploring associations between morphometric measurements, genetic group of sire and performance of beef on dairy calves

Abstract Sire selection for beef on dairy crosses plays an important role in livestock systems as it may affect future performance and carcass traits of growing finishing crossbred cattle. The phenotypic variation found has raised concerns from meat packers due to animals with type characteristics. use morphometric measurements help understand the structures sire progeny selecting greater performance. In addition, relationship growth, these could be used early predict until transition farms sale. objectives this study were: (1) evaluate effect different sires breeds calves including cannon bone (CB), forearm (FA), hip height (HH), face length (FL), width (FW) growth performance; (2) weight gain birth sale (WG) body at (BW) using such obtained first days animals’ life. CB, FA, HH, FL, FW, 7±5 (BW7) (Table 1) were measured 206 calves, four [Angus (AN), SimAngus (SA), Simmental (SI), Limousin (LI)], five farms. To animal 91 out sourced farms, offspring two (AN SA) used. WG BW, 97 three (AN, SA, LI) data analyzed a mixed model, considering farm random effects. linear models (including or not measurements) used, leave-one-out cross-validation strategy was their predictive quality. HH BW7 7.67% 10.7% higher (P < 0.05) SA compared AN, respectively. However, ADG adjusted 120 14.3% 9.46% AN SA. improved model’s BW. conclusion, calves’ life can dairy. Such lead optimized management decisions profitability