INFLUENCE OF MATURE COW WEIGHT ON ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY IN BEEF CATTLE PRODUCTION

Twinning in Beef Cattle: an Opportunity to Improve Reproductive and Economic Efficiency of Beef Production?

The possibility of improving the rate of reproduction in beef cattle by selection for an increased rate of twinning has been debated with both pessimism and optimism since the early days of animal breeding. The success of selection for multiple births in sheep lifted hopes that a similar program for cattle would also be successful. Pearl (1912) wrote, “From the standpoint of practical breeder i...

Beef Cow Efficiency- Revisited

Gordon Dickerson : Defining Economic Efficiency of Beef Production

Dr. Gordon E. Dickerson was a visionary and productive scientist whose many scientific contributions included a systems approach to the genetic improvement of economic efficiency of beef production. His most important contributions to the improvement of beef efficiency include: 1) insisting on an economic definition of the biological objectives of livestock production, 2) promoting multi-discip...

Genetic correlations between mature cow weight and productive and reproductive traits in Nellore cattle.

We investigated genetic associations between mature cow weight (MW) and weaning weight (WW), yearling weight (YW), weight gain from birth to weaning (GBW), weight gain from weaning to yearling (GWY), weaning hip height (WHH), yearling hip height (YHH), scrotal circumference (SC), and age at first calving (AFC). Data from 127,104 Nellore animals born between 1993 and 2006, belonging to Agr...

Covariance functions and random regression models for cow weight in beef cattle.

Data from the first four cycles of the Germplasm Evaluation program at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center were used to evaluate weights of Angus, Hereford, and F1 cows produced by crosses of 22 sire and 2 dam (Angus and Hereford) breeds. Four weights per year were available for cows from 2 through 8 yr of age (AY) with age in months (AM). Weights (n = 61,798) were analyzed with REML using cov...