Live Weight Versus Metabolic Body Size in Dairy Cows and Goats

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Abstract
This article is a discussion (with some new evidence) of lactating maintenance and milkenergy yield as proportional to live wt. vs. proportional to metabolic body size (1/4 power of live wt.). It may be accepted as experimentally established that as between cows and goats lactating maintenance is proportional to metabolic body size. It is equally well established that within either one of the 2 spp., lactating maintenance is not proportional to metabolic body size, but is consistently proportional to a power of live wt. in excess of unity,. The excess is not statistically significant. Weightyield relations are similar to wt.-maintenance relations, al-though more variable, inherently and environmentally. The exptl. evidence available supports the metabolic body size theory as between cows and goats and contradicts the metabolic body size theory as within cows or as within goats.

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