Comparison of body measurements of beef cows of different breeds

Abstract

Abstract. Body measurements of 110 beef cows of 9 breeds (Hungarian Simmental, Hereford, Aberdeen Angus, Red Angus, Lincoln Red, Shaver, Charolais, Limousin and Blonde d’Aquitaine) were taken in December 2004. The absolute, relative measurements and measurement indices moreover correlations between age, live weight and measurements were evaluated and compared for the mentioned breeds. Animals in study were born between 1989 and 2002, kept on the same condition on peat-bog soil pasture at Keszthely. Significant differences (P<0.05) were found among breeds in most of the body measurements. Blonde d’ Aquitaine was the heaviest in live weight (638 kg), highest as for the height at withers (142.5 cm), height at rump (146.6 cm) and length of the body (151.5 cm). Limousin had longest measurements as for the length of the rump (47.4 cm) and width of the rump (58.3 cm). Shaver had the longest width between shoulders (52.9 cm) and width of the head (25.1 cm) while Lincoln Red the longest length of the head (52.8 cm). The correlations between live weight and measurements were medium or strong positive (r = 0.40–0.83), between age and measurements slight positive (r = 0.01–0.46), among the different measurements medium or strong positive (r = 0.22–0.81).

Multivariate characterization of morphological traits in West African cattle sires

“…Studies aiming at morphological assessment in cattle are relatively scant in cattle and mainly performed on adult females (Mwacharo et al, 2006;Bene et al, 2007;Ndumu et al, 2008). Although information on body measurements in White Fulani cattle (related with Zebu Peul) exists (Yakubu et al, 2009), mean values computed for the same body traits cannot be straightforwardly compared with our study due to differences in sampling strategies: a significant part of the individuals sampled by Yakubu et al (2009) were less than 2.5 years old and, therefore, were probably still growing.…”

Application of multivariate principal component analysis to morphological characterization of indigenous goats in Southern Nigeria

“…The characterization of local genetic resources depends on the knowledge of the variation of morphological traits, which have played a very fundamental role in classification of livestock based on size and shape (Ferra et al, 2010;Agga et al, 2010;Leng et al, 2010;Yakubu et al, 2010a and b). Based on body conformation, meat production can better be estimated than other production properties making body measurements important selection criteria (Bene et al, 2007).…”

Application of body volume formula for predicting live weight in Ongole crossbred cows

“…Regularly, the right use of live weight criteria in feeding, marketing and drug administration required sophisticated facilities such as weighing scales (monitor digital electrical scale), which was expensive and not readily affordable to many rural households. Positive correlation between the live weight and most of the body measurements was found in several research reports (Afolayan et al, 2006;Bene et al, 2007;Ozkaya and Bozkurt, 2009;Sawanon et al, 2011;Udeh et al, 2011). This fact repeatedly point out the importance of taking body measurement and offers opportunity for estimating parameters in relation to the various body measurements.…”