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Georgia Experiment Station, Experiment
Abstract
Three years' data from 135 non-creep-fed Hereford calves were used in a least squares regression analysis to investigate the influence of milk production and other factors on 120-and 240-day weight and 240-day gain. The independent variables included years, three nutritional treatments, sire, sex, milk production in three nutritional treatments, birth order of calf, birth weight, weight of dam, and age of dam.
Year effects significantly influenced only the 4-month weights, while the nutritional treatments were significant influences in all three of the dependent variables.
The five sires used did not account for significant differences in the growth rate of the calves. This lack of significance may have been due to the sires having been selected on the basis of their pre- and post-weaning performance.
Steers were not significantly heavier than heifers at 4 months of age, but became significantly heavier by the time they were 8 months old.
Differences in milk consumption of the calves were significant sources of variation in each of the nutrition treatments. As nutritional treatments improved, additional milk was required to produce a pound of calf gain at either 4 or 8 months.
Calves born later in the calving season had a significant weight advantage at 4 months, but this advantage was not present at 8 months.
Calves that were heavier at birth were significantly heavier at 4 and 8 months of age. Gain to 8 months was not significantly influenced by birth weight differences. Weight of dam approached significance in its effect on 8-month weight, while age of dam, as used in this analysis, was not an important source of variation.
The 8-month milk production of the cows in this study ranged from 400 to 4200 lb The relationship of milk to calf weight gains was greatest during the first 60-day period of the calf's life and declined slightly by weaning. These data indicate that only two or three milk samplings during the nursing period are needed to determine the relationship of milk consumption to calf gains.
Eighty-two percent of the variation in each of the three dependent variables was accounted for in these analyses. Sixty-six percent of the variation in 8-months weight was due to differences in milk consumption.
1 Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Series No. 408.
2 The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of J. L. Carmon and J. C. Fortson, Department of Experimental Statistics, University of Georgia, Athens, for aid in the analyses of the data; Walter R. Harvey, Biometrician, A.R.S., Beltsville, Md. for suggestions incorporated in the statistical analyses; and D. M. Baird for the management of the experimental animals.
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