Effect of Birth Weight and Weaning Weight on the Carcass Traits of Hanwoo Steer

Yu Na  Song1   Dong Hui  Lee1   Young Gyu  Cho1   Taye Mekonnen Kefala1   Mioung Soo  Kim2   Kang Seok  Seo1,*   

1Fish Genetics and Breeding Research Center, National Institute of Fisheries Science, Geoje 53334, Korea
2Department of Bio-AI Convergence, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea
3Division of Animal and Dairy Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the birth weight, weaning weight, and economic features of Hanwoo Steer using data obtained from the breeding farm established as the foundation for improvement goals for birth weight and weaning weight. Data on the birth weight, weaning weight, and carcass grade of 1,907 Korean cattle born between 2006 and 2019 was analyzed. Regarding the environmental effects, farm, year of birth, birth year-half year, weaning days, and carcass days data were used. A total of 2 models were established and analyzed to estimate the correlation between birth weight and weaning weight with carcass traits while considering environmental effects affecting traits. The result indicated that in the birth year-half year effect, as the age at birth increased from the year 2006 to 2019, the carcass weight, eye muscle area, backfat thickness, and marbling score increased significantly more in the first half year than the second half year (p<0.01). The phenotypic correlation results revealed a moderate association with birth weight and carcass weight, eye muscle area of 0.353 and 0.249 respectively. The associations between weaning weight and carcass weight, eye muscle area were 0.279 and 0.157 respectively. According to these results, the birth weight and weaning weight are associated with each carcass traits, indicating that they can be used as primary data to determine the correlation between the traits studied.

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