222 



Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1918. 



(a) THE EFFECT OF THE SIZE OF THE BREED ON THE WEIGHT 



OF THE CALF 



The fact that animals of a given breed vary in their weight 

 at birth is something which has been known ever since animal^ 

 were born. The difference in the weights of the births of one 

 breed as directly compared with the weights of another breed 

 is not so well known. Table 6 furnishes the material to mak 

 such a comparison extracted from the records collected by tb 

 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station through the active co- 

 operation of the stock breeders of the State. 



TABLE 6. 



Table Showing the Average Birth Weights of Certain of the 

 Breeds of Dairy and Beef Cattle. 



Breed 



Average birth weight in pounds 



Grade Jersey 



Pure bred Jersey 



Grade Guernsey 



Purs bred Guernsey 



Grade Ayrshire 



Pure bred Ayrshire 



Grade Holstein 



Pure bred Holstein 



Grade Shorthorn 



Dutch belted 



Grade Brown Swiss 



Grade Aberdeen-Angus. 



60.1114+ .5887 

 53.9384± .5907 

 67.9250+ .8223 

 63.4000+1.2469 

 61.1667+ .8275 

 69.5918± .7797 

 80.8082+ .5255 

 92.8761+ .8791 

 65.7692±1.8316 

 64.4737+1.1746 

 75.0000+2.1198 

 74.0909+2.3681 



The following facts come from a study of the cooperative 

 records. The smallest breed also has the smallest weight a, 

 birth. The grades of the island breeds are generally larger tliar 

 the pure breds. This is due probably to the influence of the 

 blood from larger breeds found in the pedigree of the islanc 

 grade stock. Pure bred Holstein-Friesian calves have the 

 largest weight at birth showing that because an animal is brec 

 to produce milk is no guarantee that its size at birth will not be 

 as great as that of one of the properly beef breeds. 



