The effects of maternal calving date and calving interval on growth performance of beef calves

This study was undertaken to investigate the growth performance of calves b orn to dams with different calving dates and calving intervals. Early calvi ng dams produced calves with the lowest birth weights, the highest actual w eaning weights and the highest pre-breeding heifer weights. The higher wean ing weights of early calvers were due to higher pre-weaning average daily g ains and the older age of their calves at weaning. Corrected weaning weight s of calves born to darns calving at different times during the calving sea son were not significantly different. A one-day increase in calving interva l resulted in a decrease of 0.29 +/- 0.01 kg for weaning weight and a decre ase of 0.54 +/- 0.01 kg for heifer pre-breeding weight. It is recommended t hat date of calving and actual weaning weight of calves should be considere d when evaluating the reproductive and productive performance of breeding c ows.