Objective The study aimed to describe growth parameters and to quantify the association between linear body measurements as predictors of liveweight (LW) of Holstein–Friesian (HF), and HF crossbred dairy calves in Queensland. A secondary objective was to quantify the effect of disease events on LW change. Study Design Longitudinal study. Methods Fortnightly LW, hip height (HH), hip width (HW) and heart girth (HG) measurements were recorded from 16 male and 28 female HF calves from birth until weaning. The association between linear body measurement and the effect of a disease event on LW change were explored using linear mixed‐effects modelling with random intercepts and random slopes. Results HG was the best body measure used individually as a predictor of calf LW (R2 = 82%; P < 0.001), while the combined use of HG, HW and HH was the most accurate predictor of calf LW between birth and weaning (R2 = 90%; P < 0.001). HW, average feed intake and total feed intake were significantly affected by disease events (P < 0.05). On average, total average LW loss associated with a single pneumonia event was estimated at 14.6 kg (95% CI = 10.5 to 18.7 kg; P < 0.05). Conclusions Calves of this study performed at a level consistent with the previously published reports. Growth performance was significantly compromised by pneumonia. HW was found to be the least predictive individual measure, and the combined use of HH, HW and HG had the most accurate prediction of calf liveweight from birth to weaning.

1. The incidence of twins has been one twin birth in every forty-eight Red Poll births, and one twin birth in every thirty-three Friesian births.2. So far as is known no identical twins have been dropped.3. Thirteen of the fourteen freemartins reared have been barren.4. The birth weight of twin calves has been only slightly lower than that of single calves. Bull calves have been approximately 6 lb. heavier than heifer calves.5. The mortality amongst twins is approximately equal to that amongst single calves.6. Twinning appears to be inheritable and to run in strains.7. The gestation period of a cow bearing twins has been from 8 to 10 days shorter than that of a cow bearing a single calf.8. The percentage of twins dropped increased as the age of the dam at calving increases.9. Twinning is not influenced by the season of the year.10. The twins and dams of twins have been consistently heavier producers of milk and butterfat than the other herd members.11. There is some evidence to suggest a close genetic relationship between the following three characters: (i) multiple births, (ii) high milk and butterfat production, (iii) long life and fertility.

This study is a continuation of the investigations of Prof. Agar, Professor of Zoology, University of Melbourne, entitled “Heredity and milking function,” which appeared in the Journal of Agriculture of Victoria in January, 1926; and it deals with the inheritance of milk, butterfat percentage, and butterfat in the Victoria Stud of Red Poll Cattle owned by the Department of Agriculture of Victoria, at the State Research Farm, Werribee. The milk and butterfat records used in these investigations are the 273 day records performed under the regulations governing the Victorian Government Pure-bred Herd Test, published annually, and included in the successive volumes of the Red Poll Herd Book of Australia. They cover the period since the establishment of the Government Herd Test—1912–13 to 1929–30.

No abstract