Relations between Some Body Measurements and Certain Performance Characters in Milking Shorthorn Steers

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Abstract
Studies were made of 5 body measurements[long dash]height at withers, height to floor of chest, heart girth, width at shoulders, and length of body[long dash]and their relationship to avg. daily gain, efficiency of feed utilization, and the age at slaughter of 157 Milking Shorthorn steers raised and fed in record of performance studies at the U.S.D.A. Research Center, Beltsville, Md. Measurements and performance data were taken just before slaughter when the animals reached a live wt. of 900 lb. In addition to the total group of 157 steers, a subgroup consisting of 62 animals which received more uniform treatment was studied. In general, there was close agreement in the correlations between body measurements and the measures of performance for the 2 groups and also between the measurements themselves. Results from both groups were: The steers tended to vary independently with regard to the body dimensions measured except for a fairly high association between height at withers and height at floor of chest. Of the 5 measurements, heart girth had the highest association with the measures of performance studied. Greater width of shoulder at 900 lb. had a slight tendency to be associated with a decrease in height at withers. Steers with a high avg. daily gain in general had a high efficiency of feed utilization. Results supported by data on the group of 157 steers and not opposed by results from the subgroup indicated that: Steers which were shorter in height and in length of body and smaller in heart girth were slightly superior in the production characters studied. Greater width of shoulder at 900 lb. had a slight tendency to be associated with a large heart girth and with a decrease in height to floor of chest. Length of body tended to be positively associated with height measurements but not with heart girth. Results from the 62 steers indicated that heavier calves at birth had a tendency to reach weaning wt. and final wt. at an earlier age than lighter calves.
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