Genetic association between direct and indirect measures of body energy in dairy cows

G Banos, M P Coffey
2010 Advances in Animal Biosciences  
Introduction Body energy refers to the amount of internal energy a cow has at her disposal to support physiological functions (milk production, growth, reproduction, maintenance, activity). Ideally, body energy would be directly measured using individual feed intake and physiological function records. In field conditions, however, such information is not available. For this reason, indirect measures of body energy have been suggested based on the body condition score and live weight of a cow.
more » ... e usefulness of these traits depends on their true association with direct body energy. The objective of this study was to derive the correlation between direct and indirect measures of body energy in dairy cows.
doi:10.1017/s2040470010001469 fatcat:ahlgr5x5hnawjl2gynsalne2fa