THE RELATION BETWEEN BIRTH WEIGHT, SUBSEQUENT WEIGHTS, BODY WEIGHT GAIN, AND FEED CONSUMPTION OF HOLSTEIN–FRIESIAN STEERS

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Abstract
The birth weight of a Holstein–Friesian bull calf was positively correlated with the length of the gestation period of the dam. An increase of 1 day in the gestation period resulted in an approximate increase of 1 lb in the birth weight of the calf. Birth weight, in turn, was correlated with body weight of a Holstein–Friesian steer up to 7 months of age, but this correlation disappeared when the animals were 14 months old. When only the calves having birth weights ranging between 87 and 112 lb were considered, this correlation was no longer significant by the time the animals reached 4 months of age. On the other hand, there was no correlation between birth weight and rate of gain at any time after the animals reached 200 lb body weight. Thus, birth weight can be expected to be of some importance when considering veal, but not beef, production.