Abstract
The objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for the body weights of Turkish Holstein bulls using the random regression model. The data set consists of 1475 body weight records from 395 Holstein bulls raised in the same herd. Body weight records of bulls aged between 32 and 725 days old were collected at approximately two-month intervals from December 2013 to October 2014. In the study body weight measurements made on the same day were accepted as a group and the bulls were grouped into 10 different groups according to their age. The additive genetic and permanent environmental effects were estimated using DFREML algorithm by third order Legendre polynomials. The additive genetic variance estimates ranged from 10.73 to 4867.07, the phenotypic variance estimates ranged from 382.84 to 5514.86 and permanent environmental variance estimates ranged from 0.33 to 63.27. The heritability values were estimated between 0.03 to 0.90. The phenotypic and additive genetic correlations between body weights were positively estimated between 0.085 to 0.89 and 0.53 to 0.94, respectively. It was concluded that use of body weight at an earlier age will give advantage in breeding studies for body weight at slaughter.
Highlights
21% of world meat production is obtained from cattle while this rate exceeds 32% for red meat (Anonymous 2016)
A total of 1475 live weight records taken between December 2013 and October 2014 from 395 male Holstein raised at the same farm, located in the south of Turkey, were used for the research
This research has estimated parameters for live weight of stock materials raised in Turkey, using a random regression model
Summary
21% of world meat production is obtained from cattle while this rate exceeds 32% for red meat (Anonymous 2016). Even though the breeds and systems used for cattle meat production differs from each other, the basic logic is to use breeds with high growth capacity and/or rate and to grow animals at as low cost as possible. There are various researches on the weights and growth rates of cattlefrom different ages and regions of the world. In these researches, the data from the meat-oriented breeds, like Nellore, Angus or Hereford, are used as material (Albuquerque & Meyer 2001; Arango et al 2004; Bohmanova et al 2005; Menéndez-Buxadera et al 2008; Baldi et al 2012; Martinez et al 2012).
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