BODY MEASUREMENTS AND BODY WEIGHTS OF SPECIAL-FED HOLSTEIN VEAL CALVES

Changes in various body dimensions of special-fed veal calves were mea sured and correlated with body weight (BW) at three specific times dur ing the growth period as contemporaries and over the entire feeding pe riod as noncontemporaries. The calves (n = 826) were weighed and-measu red for body length, heart girth, wither height, and hip width at 2, 8 , and 16 wk after arrival at the veal farms. Each of the four measurem ents; expressed as ratios to BW, decreased over the feeding period; de cline in the ratio of hip width to BW was less than the decreases in t he other ratios. Linear models to predict contemporary BW within each age group based on all body measurements were developed; R-2 values fo r models for 2, 8, and 16 wk were 0.72, 0.77, and 0.76, respectively W ithin each of the three age classes, a model including linear, quadrat ic, and cubic terms of heart girth yielded the highest R-2 values of a ny single measurement (0.46, 0.63, and 0.67 for data for 2, 8, and 16 wk, respectively). The addition of heart girth as a second linear meas urement to three-term models containing only one other measurement inc reased the R-2 more than did the addition of any other single linear e xpression, except for the equation based on body length. When all reco rds on all calves were combined and the observations were treated as n oncontemporaries, the R-2 was 0.97 for a linear model that included ai l four measurements. However, this R-2 was essentially the same as the R-2 from a three-term model using only heart girth. The cubic models in descending order of R-2 values were heart girth, body length, hip w idth, and wither height. These results suggest that BW can be predicte d accurately in a group of noncontemporary male veal calves ranging fr om 2 tb 16 wk after the start of the feeding period. However, the BW o f calves within contemporary groups (2, 8, and 16 wk) cannot be predic ted accurately according to R-2 values.