The Effect of Maternal Age on Some Body Measurements in Anatolian Black Calves

Year 2019, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 47 - 50, 01.01.2019

İlker Ünal , Hikmet İlknur Tuncer Çağrı Melikşah Sakar , Engin Ünay

Abstract

Birth weight is one of the most important parameters affecting the growth, improvement and yield of the calves in cattle breeding. The aim of this study is to research the effect of maternal age, gender of calf and birth year on some body measurements such as rump height, body length, chest girth, front wrist girth, rump breadth, chest breadth, chest depth and birth weight of calves of Anatolian Black Cattle which is one of the domestic cattle breeds with the widest living range in Turkey. In this study, some body measurements of 58 Anatolian Black calves borned between the year 2015-2017 in the herd of protection of genetic resources at Lalahan International Center for Livestock Research And Training were evaluated. The effect of maternal age was found statistically significant (p<0.05) only on chest girth, while the effect of gender was found significant on chest girth, front wrist girth and birth weight. The effect of birth year was not found statistically significant on all body measurements examined in this study. However, when maternal age is divided into two groups as group one (under 5 year age) and group two (over and equal 5 year age) the effect of maternal age was found significant (p<0.05) on chest girth, front wrist girth and birth weight in female calves and significant (p<0.05) on body length, chest girth and birth weight in male calves.

Keywords

Anatolian black cattle, Birth weight, Maternal age, Body measurements

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