A Comparative Study of the Nonlinear Methods for Estimate Body Weight by Body Measurements on Different Sample Sizes in Morkaraman Sheeps

Abstract

The objective of this study was to estimate body weight of Morkaraman sheeps from body measurements with nonlinear models. Selected 110 sheeps 3-5 years were scored for body weight, body length, height at wither, chest width and pump width. For determine relationships with body weight between body measurements, correlation analysis was performed. The results of the correlation analysis indicated that the highest relationship according to the all sample sizes were body weight between body length (0.95, 0.90, 0.83, 0.81). Considering all parameters included in the model, the parameter showing the highest correlation with body weight was determined as body length according to all sample sizes. the highest correlation was found in 50 sample sizes (r:0.95). According to the small sample sizes (10-20), Logistic and Saturation growth models can be used to determine the body weight by using body length, on the other hand, Incomplete gamma model is more succesful to estimate body weight when sample size is nearly 30 and 50.

Morphological Description and Live Weight Prediction from Body Measurements of Socorro Island Merino Lambs

“…Contrary to this, other studies found that LW is correlated with different body measurements depending on the sex of the lambs [23]. WH and BL are other body measurements that have been found to be highly correlated with LW [30,31].…”

“…In this regard, using the exponential model, Canul-Solís et al [33] estimated the live weight of Pelibuey ewes from hip width with a similar precision to that found in the present study. Another study showed that with small sample sizes (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), logistic and saturation growth models can be used to determine the LW of Morkaraman sheep using BL as a predictor, and with sample sizes bigger than 20, incomplete gamma is the most accurate model [31].…”