Body Measurements of Male Kamphaengsaen Beef Cattle as Parameters for Estimation of Live Weight

Abstract

In countries where the marketing of beef cattle is carried out by live weight, the need for weighing equipment in the market place causes substantial difficulties for developing countries, especially where cattle production involves rural households. A dataset consisting of 504 male Kamphaengsaen beef cattle was collected at Kasetsart University, Thailand, comprising 234 feedlot cattle (FL) and 270 grass-fed cattle (GF). Measurements were recorded for body weight (BW), heart girth (HG), withers height (WH), body length (BL), shoulder width (SW), hip width (HW), shin circumference (SC), and tail circumference (TC). The correlation as measured by the coefficient of determination, between BW and linear body measurements was highly (P < 0.0001) significant. All of the seven body measurements were modeled and the three body measurements that provided the best fit were HG, BL and TC accounting for 90% of the body weight in the feedlot animals and 87% in the grass-fed animals. The high values for coefficients of determination between the body weight and the linear body measurements of the Kamphaengsaen cattle in this study indicated that the variables or their combination could be used to estimate or predict the live body weight of these cattle. The prediction equations in the present study showed no significant (P = 0.99) difference (with means of live body weight of feedlot and grass-fed respectively in brackets) between actual live body weight (413.2521 ± 88.6010, 216.0667 ± 50.0380) and live body weight predicted with the equations from the present study (413.2307 ± 84.3010, 216.0536 ± 46.8750).