Journal
ANIMAL PRODUCTION SCIENCE
Volume 58, Issue 9, Pages 1758-1765Publisher
CSIRO PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1071/AN16577
Keywords
allometric; heart girth; prediction error; sub-Saharan Africa
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Funding
- German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
- German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) as part of their program: 'Green innovation centres for the agriculture and food sector'
- German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) as part of their project 'In situ assessment of GHG emissions from two livestock systems in East Africa - determining current status and quantifying mitigation options'
- German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
- Dairy Genetics East Africa (DGEA) project
- University of New England
- International Livestock Research Institute - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
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Measurement of liveweight of stock is one of the most important production tools available to farmers- playing a role in nutrition, fertility management, health and marketing. Yet most farmers in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to scales on which to weigh cattle. Heart girth measurements (and accompanying algorithms) have been used as a convenient and cost-effective alternative to scales, however despite a plethora of studies in the extant literature, the accuracy and sensitivity of such measures are not well described. Using three datasets from phenotypically and geographically diverse cattle populations, we developed and validated new algorithms with similar R-2 to extant studies but lower errors of prediction over a full range of observed weights, than simple linear regression, that was valid for measurements in an unassociated animal population in sub-Saharan Africa. Our results further show that heart girth measurements are not sufficiently sensitive to accurately assess seasonal liveweight fluctuations in cattle and thus should not be relied on in situations where high precision is a critical consideration.
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