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Selection for Increased Weights of Six-Month-Old Beef Calves in a Brahman-Angus Population¹

United States Department of Agriculture

Abstract

This report deals with the six-month weights of 446 calves produced during the years 1945–1950 at the U. S. Iberia Livestock Experiment Farm, Jeanerette, Louisiana in a strain of cattle derived from a Brahman-Angus crossbred foundation. In this area many calves are sent to slaughter at weaning and weight at this time is an important factor in determining profit.

Heritability of six-month weight was estimated as zero from sire-offspring regressions and paternal half-sib correlations of immediate offspring, and from 5 to 15 percent based on dam-offspring regressions.Paternal half-sib correlations among daughters of the sires used and based on the weights of calves raised by the daughters gave a heritability estimate of 19 percent. These figures indicate the importance of maternal abilities in determining six-month calf weights and suggest that they are heritable traits. The data presented do not exclude the possibility of non-additive types of gene action being important and indicate that progress in selecting for six-month weight within a strain is likely to be slow.

¹ This work is cooperative with the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station and has been part of the S-10 Project since 1949.