摘要
Data from the centralised performance tests for young beef bulls in South Africa were used to determine the minimum test duration required to obtain an accurate measure of feed intake, growth rate and two measures of feed efficiency: feed conversion ratio and residual feed intake. Five breeds from four different biological types were used to investigate whether different duration tests are required for different types of cattle. The results indicated that a test of between 42 and 56 days is sufficient for measurement of growth rate when a linear regression equation is used to model weight vs. time. Feed intake required approximately 56–70 days to measure accurately, while feed conversion ratio and residual feed intake both required around 70–84 days. There was little evidence of consistent breed differences in the time required to measure the traits, and it was concluded that the duration of performance tests could be shortened from 112 days to between 70 and 84 days for all breeds with no loss in accuracy of the test.
摘要译文
来自南非幼牛公牛的集中性能测试数据用于确定获得准确的采食量测量所需的最短测试持续时间，生长速度和饲料效率的两个衡量标准：饲料转化率和残余采食量。来自四种不同生物类型的五个品种被用于研究是否需要对不同类型的牛进行不同的持续时间测试。结果表明，当使用线性回归方程来模拟重量与时间时，42至56天的测试足以测量生长速率。采食量需要大约56-70天才能准确测量，而饲料转化率和残余采食量都需要70-84天左右。几乎没有证据表明测量性状所需的时间存在一致的品种差异，并且得出的结论是，对于所有品种，性能测试的持续时间可以从112天缩短到70到84天，而不会损失测试的准确性。
J.AArcher[a];LBergh[b];. Duration of performance tests for growth rate, feed intake and feed efficiency in four biological types of beef cattle[J]. Livestock Production Science, 2000,65(1-2): 47-55