Some Factors Affecting Birth Weight and Gestation Length of Beef Cattle and Birth Weight of Milking Shorthorn Cattle

Information on the factors influencing the gestation and birth weight of calves is of importance to practical animal husbandry. The birth weight is of economic importance and a knowledge of factors influencing gestation length may be valuable in planning herd management. The purpose of this paper was to study the influence of some of the factors which may affect the gestation length and birth weight of calves of beef breeding and factors affecting birth weight in Milking Shorthorns. Some of the results of this study show: 1) The age of the cow at parturition had no significant effect on the length of gestation. 2) The interaction of breed and sex was not found to have any significant effect on gestation length. 3) Differences in birth weight averages for breeds were highly significant for all breeds except for theAngus-Shorthorn comparison which was not significant. Advisor: Cecil T. Blun