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The identification of beef sires that produce calves of above averageconformation from dairy cows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2016

B. J. McGuirk ,
A. Christison ,
I. Going  and
A. R. Gilmour
B. J. McGuirk
Affiliation:
Genus, Bays Leap Farm, Heddon on the Wall, Newcastle upon Ту ne NE15 0JW
A. Christison
Affiliation:
Genus, Bays Leap Farm, Heddon on the Wall, Newcastle upon Ту ne NE15 0JW
I. Going
Affiliation:
Genus, Bays Leap Farm, Heddon on the Wall, Newcastle upon Ту ne NE15 0JW
A. R. Gilmour
Affiliation:
NSW Agriculture, Orange Agricultural Institute, Forest Road, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
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Abstract

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food routinely publishes price information for 3-week-old beef + dairy calves sold at major livestock auction centres in England and Wales. For the period 1993/94 to 1996/97, there were average price premiums of £51 for male and £38 for female calves classed as ‘first quality’. We have shown previously that choosing an easy calving beef sire for use on dairy cows will generally lead to calves which are smaller in size and of poorer conformation. To enable dairy producers to maximize returns from calf sales, we propose that beef sires be evaluated for the predicted incidence of first quality’ calves, which can be derived from the sire’s evaluation for calf conformation and the breed incidence of first quality’ calves. Dairy farmers may then jointly consider a bull’s predicted merit for calving ease and calf quality when choosing a sire for use in their herd.

Keywords

beef bullscalvesdairy cowsgenetic effects
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Science , Volume 68 , Issue 3 , April 1999 , pp. 423 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1999

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References

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