Growth pattern and prediction of body weight from body measurements in growing jaffarabadi buffalo calves

The present investigation dealt with growth pattern and prediction of body weight from body measurements in Growing Jaffarabadi buffalo calves. The body weight and measurements recorded at weekly intervals for 24 Jaffarabadi buffalo calves in a planned experiment of a growth study were utilized to formulate prediction equations. The body weights and body measurements viz., body length (BL), height at withers (HW), and chest girth (CG) of the calves were taken as independent variables, and BW was the dependent variable. Single and stepwise multiple regression models, with and without intercepts, were developed to evolve prediction equations. The prediction equations developed for BW were assessed based on R2 values. The body weight, body length, height at withers and chest girth at birth were 34.40±0.71 kg, 60.75±1.20 cm, 67.42±1.18 cm and 73.04±0.75 cm, respectively. The corresponding values at 26 weeks (6 months) of age were 103.10±3.25 kg, 86.10±1.70 cm, 92.01±1.24 cm and 101.41±1.35, respectively. The rate of increase in body weight was more steep as compared to that in skeletal size, i.e., body length and height at withers and also in chest girth. The net change in body weight, body length, height at wither and chest girth was 68.70 kg, 25.35 cm, 24.59 cm and 28.37 cm, the magnitude of increase being, 199.71, 41.73, 36.47 and 38.84%, respectively. Significant (p<0.01) correlation coefficients of high magnitude of body weight, up to 26 weeks of age, with BL, HW and CG were 0.732, 0.784 and 0.823, respectively. Based on ranking of various equations, without intercept, predicting body weight of Jaffrabadi calves with quite high confidence level could be advocated as B.Wt. (kg) =0.789 x CG (cm) with R2 = 94.8%. Alternatively, equation with intercept, as B.Wt. (kg) = -98.076 + 0.783x HW (cm) + 1.188 x CG (cm) with R2 value of 71.2% or B.Wt. (kg) = -86.623 +0.427x BL (cm) +1.416x CG (cm) with R2 value of 69.2% could also be suggested. The r-value (0.704) was high during early post-natal phase, i.e., up to 14 weeks of age and reliability of equation for predicting average daily gain (ADG) from age (in weeks) was 49%. The growth rate (g/d) could be predicted from age of calf with 47.42% reliability during birth to 13 weeks (r=0.688) and with 40.46% confidence level during 14 to 26 weeks of age (r=0.201).