Prediction of body weight from body girths and length measurements in crossbred lactating cattle.

摘要

A study was conducted to predict live body weight from 3 girths and 3 body lengths in 99 crossbred lactating cattle of varying ages and parities. The heart girth was highly correlated with body weight (R2=0.786). The R2 value for prediction of body weight was 61.5% for heart girth alone, 63.9% with incorporation of hind girth and point of shoulder to pin bone length, whereas it was 65.6% with incorporation of hind girth and poll-tail base length. This indicates that addition of body length and hind girth improved the R2 value and minimizes the percent variation from the actual body weight. The prediction equation for calculating the body weights to its maximum accuracy should include heart girth associated with at least 2 other body measurements.