THE RELATIONSHIP OF SIRE EVALUATIONS FOR EASE OF CALVING AND BIRTH WEIGHT

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Abstract
Best Linear Unbiased Prediction procedures were used to evaluate 204 Beefmaster, Charolais, Simmental, Limousin, Red Angus and Chianina sires for birth weight (BW) and ease of calving (EC) based on the performance of a total of 6758 progeny. Correlations between BW and EC for sire means ranged from −0.77 to 0.08 with an average of −0.27 and for sire proofs they ranged from −0.90 to 0.14 with an average of −0.41. These results suggest that there is a strong relationship between the traits and that BW may be a valuable trait for use in indirect selection to reduce calving problems. Key words: Beef, ease of calving, birth weight, sire evaluation, correlation of sire proofs