Calf Size - What affects the size of calves at birth

[wagra dexters]

Louisa, I could send 72 weighed, not guessed, birthweights, if I knew how to do it without typing the whole lot out again....but I will if you would like me to. They can be sorted by sire, dam, gender, gestation, or year.
Margaret.

[Inger]

As our calves are graded animals (not pure Dexters), their birthweights wouldn't be much use. Our only useful measurement so far is the 21.5 kg purebred heifer calf mentioned above. We'll be getting more in October though. I'm expecting another 3 purebred calves to be born then.

I hope you can encourage more people to keep stats on their calves. Its really handy when one is trying to work out growth rates for the calves. As we don't milk our cows, calf growth rates are the only form of production I can measure our cows with. It will make it easier to decide which cows to keep and which to sell, if we lose the lease on the neighbour's property and have to cut back the numbers of Dexters we can keep.

[wagra dexters]

Australian pure Dexters should not be too much different to British pure Dexters, except that our cows are not kept inside over Winter. We have them in good condition to calve, but would avoid getting them too fat and lumpy. They get fed pasture hay, and are predominantly, at least half, Woodmagic breeding. So, for anyone that's interested, here is what I have collected. The weights were only ever for our own interest, so many of the males did not get weighed in the past. I have not included a 27 kg female, because it was a grade heifer.
Females:- Males:-
1 x 14kg 1 x 14 kg
4 x 15 kg 1 x 15 kg
4 x 16 kg 1 x 16 kg
8 x 17 kg 1 x 17 kg
10 x 18 kg 3 x 18 kg
6 x 19 kg 5 x 19 kg
7 x 20 kg 3 x 20 kg
3 x 21 kg 7 x 21 kg
1 x 22 kg 2 x 22 kg
3 x 23 kg 2 x 23 kg

[Louisa Gidney]

Many thanks for posting these data, just what I need.

[wagra dexters]

Should also have advised that above data relates to tested chondrodysplasia-free herd. Margaret.