Relationship between the weight of reindeer calves in autumn and their mother's age and weight in the previous spring

Lenvik, Dag; Bø, Esben; Fjellheim, Anders

doi:10.7557/2.8.1.733

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…e heritabilities (the range of the estimates from the analyses with di erent traits, on the diagonal in bold), and genetic (upper diagonal) and phenotypic (lower diagonal) correlations for the age at the maturity, individual tness ( ind ), cumulative weaning weight of calves over 7 years (WW7), dam's weight in her rst autumn (DAW1), average daily gain of the dam (D_ADG) and her rst calf 's autumn weight (CAW1) ing of Weladji et al (2008), how there is no evidence on reproduction costs in reindeer. e parity e ect in the model takes into account that the very young and old females have smaller calves with lower growth rate (Lenvik et al, 1988;Rönnegård et al, 2002;Weladji et al, 2002;2010). Further, the male calves grew faster than the female calves (Table 2), which is in line with the earlier studies (cf.…”

Section: Fixed E Ectssupporting

confidence: 87%

Genetic variation in meat production related traits in reindeer (Rangifer t. tarandus)

Muuttoranta

Holand²,

Røed³

et al. 2014

Ran

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In reindeer husbandry, animal breeding could o er tools for improving productivity by selection. e traits a ecting meat production e ciency are primarily related to calf growth and survival, and to dam's longevity and lifetime ability to raise heavy calves. Information on genetic (co)variation in these traits is scarce but needed in estimating the potential and e ectiveness of selection as well as biological constraints. e objectives of the study were to estimate these genetic parameters from the data of an experimental reindeer herd at Kutuharju (Inari, Finland).Heritabilities (h 2 ) and genetic correlations (r g ) among the average daily gain of calves (ADG), dams' age at maturity, individual tness ( ind ) and the cumulative sum of her calves' weaning weight over seven years (WW7) were studied with AS-Reml software using the dataset from the experimental herd. e pedigree included also sire information to allow the separation of the maternal e ects.Direct and maternal heritabilities of ADG were moderate (0.24±0.09 and 0.18±0.05, respectively) and the directmaternal correlation was highly negative (-0.73±0.17). Indeed, selection on growth necessitates information on both calf and dam. e genetic correlation of growth with birth date and birth weight could not be detected with the data. e age at maturity and ind had a small heritable component (0.07±0.12 and 0.10±0.06, respectively), whereas the heritability value of WW7 was 0.23±0.07. Reindeer herders' empirical selection on calf 's autumn weight favours fast growth (r g between growth and autumn weight = 0.35±0.24). Dam's weight in her rst autumn was strongly correlated with her lifetime production expressed by her individual tness (r g = 0.71±0.23) and the cumulative sum of her calves' weaning weight (r g = 0.63±0.12). Hence, the early information on the dam (her weight in her rst autumn or her rst calf 's autumn weight) works as useful selection criteria for the traits related to lifetime production.

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Section: Fixed E Ectssupporting

confidence: 87%

Genetic variation in meat production related traits in reindeer (Rangifer t. tarandus)

Muuttoranta

Holand²,

Røed³

et al. 2014

Ran

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“…We used data from a study on semi-domestic reindeer conducted in Riast/Hylling grazing district, south-central Norway (Lenvik et al 1988). Body mass of 1,969 females of known age was recorded in March 1984.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The mother-calf relationship was established at about 2 months of age based on which female the calf was following. Data from this study is described in detail elsewhere (Lenvik et al 1988). The previous analyses of this dataset, though testing for age and weight-related effects on calf weights, did not test for any possible effect of senescence, and was only used to provide a basis for future artificial selection in semidomestic reindeer (Lenvik et al 1988).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-related reproductive effort in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus): evidence of senescence

Weladji¹,

Mysterud

Holand³

et al. 2002

Oecologia

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Age-specific rates of survival and reproduction in iteroparous organisms remain a key issue in population ecology. How patterns of survival vary with age in large herbivores is well known; much less is known regarding age-specific patterns of reproduction. The senescence hypothesis predicts a progressive loss of function accompanied by decreased performance with age. The terminal investment hypothesis predicts that the proportion of resources a mother invests (i.e. effort relative to costs) is expected to increase toward the end of her life-span, when the number of offspring she can expect to rear in the future is low. Assuming that the costs remain stable, the terminal investment hypothesis predicts increased reproductive effort with age. We used data on body weight of 1,956 semi-domestic reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) calves from females with known age and weight to test these two (not mutually exclusive) hypotheses. Body weight of calves clearly decreased after 7 years of age was reached (also after controlling for female body weight), which was in support of the senescence hypothesis. We can conclude that either the terminal investment hypothesis is wrong, and/or the reproductive costs increase with age in female reindeer.

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“…where the meat production is based mainly on meat of slaughtered calves (e.g. the herd in the present study; Lenvik, 1988a). Also, in many districts, the amount of winter pasture is the limiting factor in the production system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…In some production systems calves are slaughtered at around 7 months of age, and only the heaviest ones are kept for breeding purposes (Lenvik, 1988(Lenvik, , 1988aPetersson et aly 1990). The selection intesity in these systems can be kept high, and the proportion of calves culled can reach 75% for males and 50% for females without disturbing the herd structure (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Value of early weight measurements as predictors of body weight at later ages in reindeer

Petersson

Danell

1993

Ran

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Phenotypic variances in live weight in a reindeer population and repeatabilities of the weights were estimated. The population consisted of 1847 and 1878 unselected male and female calves respectively, for which data from weighings at 2 and 7 months of age were available. All individuals in a selected population, consisting of 469 of the heaviest females, were weighed at 2, 7 and 19 months of age. The data were colleted during four successive years, 1986 - 1989. An indirect selection model for improving female weight at 19 months of age was proposed. Variance in the unselected population was higher between animals than within animals. Repeatability was estimated to be 0.636 for the male calves and 0.609 for the female calves. In the selected population, within-individual variance was higher than between-animal variance. Repeatabilities were, after correction for the effect of selection, 0.316 (between 2 and 19 months) and 0.548 (between 7 and 19 months). The aim of the selection model was to increase the average weight in the primiparous group to improve their calf production ability. Using the model, the number of animals weighing equal to or more than a certain threshold weight and the number needed for recruitment at 19 months of age could be determined

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Relationship between the weight of reindeer calves in autumn and their mother's age and weight in the previous spring

Cited by 17 publications

References 5 publications

Genetic variation in meat production related traits in reindeer (Rangifer t. tarandus)

Genetic variation in meat production related traits in reindeer (Rangifer t. tarandus)

Age-related reproductive effort in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus): evidence of senescence

Value of early weight measurements as predictors of body weight at later ages in reindeer

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