Age and calving time affects production efficiency of beef cows and their calves

BITENCOURT, MARCIA F.; CERDÓTES, LILIANE; RESTLE, JOÃO; COSTA, PABLO T.; FERNANDES, TIAGO A.; FERREIRA, OTONIEL G. L.; SILVEIRA, DANIEL D.; VAZ, RICARDO Z.

doi:10.1590/0001-3765202020181058

person MARCIA F. BITENCOURT

schoolDepartamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Faculdade de Agronomia Eliseu Maciel, Av. Eliseu Maciel, s/n, Campus UFPe, Caixa Postal 354, 96160-000 Capão do Leão, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil

0000-0001-5607-2052

person LILIANE CERDÓTES

schoolDepartamento de Zootecnia, Instituto Federal Sul Riograndense, Av. Leonel de Moura Brizola, 2501, Campus Bagé, 96418-400 Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil

0000-0002-8655-5191

person JOÃO RESTLE

schoolDepartamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Av. Esperança, s/n, Campus Samambaia, 74690-900 Goiânia, Goiás, GO, Brazil

0000-0002-6103-4074

person PABLO T. COSTA

schoolDepartamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Faculdade de Agronomia Eliseu Maciel, Av. Eliseu Maciel, s/n, Campus UFPe, Caixa Postal 354, 96160-000 Capão do Leão, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil

0000-0002-2320-7843

person TIAGO A. FERNANDES

schoolDepartamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Faculdade de Agronomia Eliseu Maciel, Av. Eliseu Maciel, s/n, Campus UFPe, Caixa Postal 354, 96160-000 Capão do Leão, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil

0000-0002-0125-5406

person OTONIEL G. L. FERREIRA

schoolDepartamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Faculdade de Agronomia Eliseu Maciel, Av. Eliseu Maciel, s/n, Campus UFPe, Caixa Postal 354, 96160-000 Capão do Leão, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil

0000-0003-0302-8482

person DANIEL D. SILVEIRA

schoolDepartamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Faculdade de Agronomia Eliseu Maciel, Av. Eliseu Maciel, s/n, Campus UFPe, Caixa Postal 354, 96160-000 Capão do Leão, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil

0000-0002-0636-402X

person RICARDO Z. VAZ

schoolDepartamento de Ciências Biológicas e Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Campus Palmeira das Missões, Av. Independência, 3751, Bairro Bela Vista, 98300-000, Palmeira das Missões, Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brazil

0000-0003-4505-1277

Correspondence to: Ricardo Zambarda Vaz E-mail: rzvaz@terra.com.br

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Conceptualization: Marcia Ferreira Bitencourt; Advisor: Ricardo Zambarda Vaz; Co-advisor: Liliane Cerdótes; Data acquisition: Marcia Ferreira Bitencourt, Liliane Cerdótes, Pablo Tavares Costa; Tiago Albandes Fernandes; Data analysis: João Restle, Daniel Duarte da Silveira, Otoniel Geter Lauz Ferreira; Design of Methodology: Marcia Ferreira Bitencourt, João Restle; Writing and editing: Marcia Ferreira Bitencourt, Ricardo Zambarda Vaz, João Restle.

Endpoints	Early-calving		Late-calving
Endpoints	Young	Adult	Young		Adult
*Cows -Weights, kg*
At calving	322.6±10.2^b	397.4±7.6^a	331.5±10.4^b		399.6±5.2^a
At weaning	319.6±10.2^b	397.8±7.7^a	328.5±10.4^b		396.7±5.2^a
At end of breeding season	339.2±10.6^b	431.2±7.9^a	345.0±10.8^b		417.0±5.4^a
*Cows - Daily weight changes, kg day^-1*
From birth to weaning	-0.050±0.07^a	0.005±0.05^a	-0.048±0.07^a	-0.046±0.03^a
From calving to end of breeding season	0.114±0.04^b	0.227±0.03^a	0.124±0.04^b	0.155±0.02^ab
*Cows - Body condition score, points*
At calving	2.91±0.05^b	3.09±0.03^a	2.87±0.05^b			3.19±0.02^a
At weaning	2.89±0.05^b	3.13±0.04^a	2.84±0.05^b			3.22±0.02^a
At end of breeding season	3.06±0.06^b	3.38±0.04^a	2.99±0.06^b			3.22±0.03^a
*Calves - Weights, kg*
At birth	31.6±1.14^ab	33.3±0.86^a	29.1±1.16^b			32.5±0.58^a
At weaning	56.4±2.77^b	70.7±1.97^a	57.3±2.74^b			68.2±1.39^a
At 210 d of age	158.8±4.21^a	164.4±3.91^a	107.2±5.31^c			123.7±2.6^b
*Calves - Daily weight changes, kg*
From birth to weaning	0.390±0.04^a	0.590±0.02^a	0.450±0.04^a	0.560±0.02^a
From birth to 210 days of age	0.616±0.03^ab	0.639±0.02^a	0.467±0.03^c	0.577±0.01^b

	Early-calving		Late-calving
Endpoints	Young	Adult	Young	Adult
Pregnancy, %	57.03^C	83.75^A	35.01^D	69.17^B
Prod. efficiency at calving, kg¹	49.9±1.6^a	42.3±1.2^b	32.7±1.6^c	31.1±0.8^c
Prod. efficiency at 210 days, kg²	42.4±1.3^a	35.0±0.9^b	29.0±1.3^c	27.2±0.6^c
Calf production index, kg³	90.6±3.8^b	137.6±2.7^a	37.4±3.7^c	85.5±1.9^b
Cow production, kg	50.5±4.5^a	58.1±3.3^a	44.4±4.6^b	45.8±2.3^b
Calf, kg	117.7±4.3^a	99.9±3.1^a	77.7±4.4^b	74.6±2.2^b
Cow-calf pair production, kg⁴	168.2±6.2^a	158.0±4.6^a	122.1±6.3^b	120.4±3.2^b
Area required for production, ha⁵	1.08±0.03^c	1.32±0.02^a	1.01±0.03^d	1.22±0.02^b
Cow-calf pair production, kg ha^-1	155.7±6.3^a	119.7±5.1^b	120.9±6.5^b	98.7±4.1^c

	Early-calving		Late-calving
Endpoints	Young	Adult	Young	Adult
*Milk yield, kg*
21 days	4.18±0.36^ab	4.81±0.27^a	3.53±0.37^b	4.58±0.18^a
42 days	2.25±0.36^c	3.46±0.27^b	2.89±0.37^bc	4.48±0.18^a
63 days	1.53±0.44^c	3.37±0.32^ab	2.50±0.44^bc	3.71±0.24^a
Average milk yield	2.65±0.31^b	3.88±0.26^a	2.97±0.30^b	4.25±0.22^a
Total milk yield	167±7.3^b	244±6.8^a	187±6.5^b	268±6.9^a
*Lactation efficiency*
Calf weight gain	24.8±2.4^b	37.4±2.7^a	28.2±2.4^b	35.7±2.8^a
kg milk per kg calf¹	6.73±1.2^b	6.52±1.4^b	6.63±1.1^b	7.50±1.3^a
kg milk per kg calf²	14.9±0.33^a	15.3±0.32^a	15.0±0.33^a	13.3±0.31^a
*Milk components, %*
Protein, %	2.76±0.15^b	3.09±0.11^a	2.83±0.15^b	3.21±0.08^a
Fat, %	3.71±0.17^a	3.50±0.13^a	3.46±0.30^a	3.38±0.10^a
Lactose, %	4.84±0.08^a	4.97±0.05^a	4.83±0.07^a	4.86±0.05^a
Total solids, %	11.29±0.47^b	11.76±0.17^b	12.46±0.25^a	12.12±0.16^a

[tfnI] ^a,b,c in the same row did not differ (P<0.05) according to the “t-test”

¹Scale of 1 to 5, where 1 = very thin and 5 = very fat.

Age and calving time affects production efficiency of beef cows and their calves

Abstract