RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VELVET ANTLER WEIGHT AND LIVEWEIGHT IN RED DEER (CERVUS-ELAPHUS)

The allometric relationship (Y = AX(b)) between velvet antler weight ( Y) harvested at 2, 3, and 4 years of age and the respective winter lea n liveweight (X), was examined in 145 farmed red deer stags (Cervus el aphus). The stags which were the progeny of 10 sires, were born in 198 2 and 1983. The allometric coefficients (b) for the 1982- and 1983-bor n stags were 2.4 and 1.7 respectively which indicated that velvet antl er was late maturing relative to winter lean liveweight. Sire had a si gnificant effect on the scaling factor (A, P < 0.05) of the allometric equation, which indicated that over the liveweight range in this stud y, there was up to a 30% difference in velvet antler weight adjusted f or winter lean liveweight for stags from the different progeny groups. The sire effect on the relationship between velvet antler weight and winter lean liveweight indicates the possibilities for selection of ge netically superior sires for velvet antler production relative to wint er lean liveweight.