Evaluation of Body Measurements of Limousin Heifers in Some Western Hungarian Farms

Abstract

Body weight and body measurements are important economic traits in beef cattle sector and can be used as selection factors. At young ages they give information on the maturity of the animals. Body measurements (withers height, tail height, width at shoulders, back length, width at hip bones, pin width) of Limousine heifers (n=313; age: 429.2 days) were taken on six Transdanubian farms in Hungary by skilled technicians with standardized equipment under appropriate conditions. Statistical analysis was made by SPSS 24.0. Normal distribution of data was confirmed by Shaphiro-Wilks test. The GLM model was focused on the intercept, the effect of herds (n=1 to 6) and covariant factors (age or live weight). The results showed that body measurement data of heifers in the same region can be evaluated by GLM which contains the effect of herd and age or weight as covariant. All components involved in the models were proven to have significant effects (P<0.001). Regarding their age, heifers of all herds were adequately developed both in live weight (69.6%) and height measurements (84-93%) compared to reference values of mature cows, ensuring a strong basis for successful breeding work in the future. The farm with the heaviest (505.7 kg) heifers had lower values for withers- (118.8 cm) and tail height (127.8 cm), and narrower shoulder (30.6 cm) which draws attention to the fact that large weight is not necessarily paired with a large frame.