A Study of Some of the Factors Influencing the Birth and Weaning Weights of Beef Calves

The importance of evaluating the breeding potentialities of domestic animals at an early age has long been recognized by livestock breeders. If phenotype at an early age is an expression of genotype, it should be possible to select superior individuals on the basis of their early performance. However, if the phenotype of an individual is dependent largely on factors other than genotype, an animal's performance at an early age is of little value as a criterion of selection. More information on the factors that influence birth and weaning weights of beef calves is needed to determine the effectiveness of selection based on these characters. The purpose of this study was to gain information on the relative importance of some of the factors that influence birth weight, weaning weight, and gain from birth to weaning of beef calves, and to determine the value of each of these characters