Martín Natalia, Schreurs Nicola, Morris Stephen, López-Villalobos Nicolás, McDade Julie, Hickson Rebecca
School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Private Bag 11 222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand.
Greenlea Premier Meats Ltd., P.O. Box 87, Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Dec 7;10(12):2313. doi: 10.3390/ani10122313.
Little is known about the growth performance of beef sires used over dairy cows in New Zealand. This experiment aimed to evaluate the growth of Angus and Hereford sires via progeny testing of beef-cross-dairy offspring born to dairy cows and grown on hill country pasture. Live weights at 131, 200, 400, 600 and 800 days were analysed from a dataset of 5208 records from 1101 progeny of 73 sires. The means of the progeny group means for live weight were 118.6 kg at 131 days, 159.1 kg at 200 days, 284.2 kg at 400 days, 427.0 kg at 600 days and 503.6 kg at 800 days, and the overall daily growth rate was 0.58 kg/day from 131 to 800 days. The sire affected ( < 0.05) the live weight of their progeny at all ages. Differences in live weights between the lightest and heaviest progeny group means increased from 19 kg at 131 days to 90 kg at 800 days. Even though growth of calves was likely restricted to 200 days, live weight at 200 days explained 51-56% of the variation in live weights at 400 and 600 days ( < 0.05). Thus, the use of beef sires selected for growth has the potential to increase the live weight of cattle born on dairy farms for meat production.
关于新西兰用于奶牛配种的肉牛种公牛的生长性能，人们了解甚少。本试验旨在通过对奶牛所生的肉牛杂交后代在山地牧场生长情况进行后裔测定，来评估安格斯和赫里福德种公牛的生长情况。从73头种公牛的1101头后代的5208条记录数据集中分析了131、200、400、600和800日龄时的活重。后代群体活重的平均值在131日龄时为118.6千克，200日龄时为159.1千克，400日龄时为284.2千克，600日龄时为427.0千克，800日龄时为503.6千克，从131日龄到800日龄的总体日生长率为0.58千克/天。种公牛对其后代在所有年龄段的活重都有影响（<0.05）。最轻和最重的后代群体平均活重差异从131日龄时的19千克增加到800日龄时的90千克。尽管犊牛的生长可能在200日龄时受到限制，但200日龄时的活重解释了400日龄和600日龄时活重变化的51 - 56%（<0.05）。因此，选择生长性能优良的肉牛种公牛用于配种，有可能提高奶牛场出生的肉牛的活重，用于肉类生产。
