Relationships between Meat Production Charac- Ters and Body Measurements in Beef and Milking Shorthorn Steers

B ODY conformation in cattle is one of the important bases in judging and selecting animals for breeding and production purposes. Measurements taken on various parts of the body furnish an objective description of body conformation. The ability of cattle to produce meat could be estimated with these measurements if relationships between body measurements and meat production characters were obtained. A number of studies have been made on the relations of certain body measurements to some of the performance factors of steers, such as Black, Knapp and Cook (1947) the correlations of body measurements with rate of gain and certain carcass characteristics; Cook, Kohli and Dawson (1951) relationships of five body measurements to slaughter grade, carcass grade and dressing percentage; Dawson, Phillips and Black (1947) birth weight and growth of steers; Hankins and Burk (1938) relationships among production and grade factors of beef; Hultz and Wheeler (1927) type of beef steers; Kohli, Cook and Dawson (1951) relations between some body measurements and certain performance characters; Knapp and Cook (1933) comparisons of body measurements; Lush (1928, 1932) the change of body measurements and the relations of body shape to the rate of gain and dressing percentage; Severson, Gerlaugh and Bentley (1917) body measurements and gain of steers; and Willard (1948) birth weight and weight gain. Since the characters studied varied, the conditions under which the studies were made were not all the same and the results differed somewhat, there is a need for further studies.