García Marrero, Tatiana María

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    Growth pattern characterization of Senepol heifers during the post-weaning period in Puerto Rico
    (2021-05-14) García Marrero, Tatiana María; Sánchez Rodríguez, Héctor L.; College of Agricultural Sciences; Domenech Pérez, Katherine; Casas Guérnica, Américo A.; Department of Animal Science; Santos Mercado, Hernán
    Senepol cattle at Finca Montaña (Aguadilla, PR) have been highly selected for improved weight gain under Puerto Rico’s environmental and management conditions. However, Finca Montaña’s body weight (BW) records suggest a weight reduction immediately after weaning, apparently due to the stress associated to the weaning period. Thus, the current study aimed to evaluate the growth patterns in Puerto Rican Senepol heifers during the post-weaning period. The BW, withers height (WH), hip height (HH), thoracic perimeter (TP), barrel perimeter (BP), hip width (HW), and body length (BL) were evaluated in 60 post-weaned Senepol heifers from Finca Montaña. Data were collected monthly (from 2-15 months after weaning) and analyzed by Proc NLMIXED, GLIMMIX, and CORR in SAS. The HH data fit a logistic model (P<0.0001). None of the other evaluated variables fit any of the tested models. Heifers presented a stagnation period (P>0.05) in BW, BP, and BL immediately after weaning (≤ 5 sampling months), followed by continuous increases (P<0.05) thereafter. Meanwhile, the TP, WH, HH, and HW measurements increased (P<0.05) continually during the entire evaluation period. In addition, all evaluated body dimensions were strongly associated amongst themselves (r=0.73-0.93; P < 0.0001). These results suggest that these heifers initially decreased the growth of tissues such as muscles and fat, without affecting their skeletal growth. The highly significant associations between body dimensions provide producers diverse alternatives to estimate cattle BW when a weighing scale system is not available, TP being the best BW predictor.