Page 113 - Calculating Agriculture Cover 20191124 STUDENT - A

CH 11 Calculating Agriculture 11-1

CHAPTER 11 NOTE TO INSTRUCTOR: Solutions
to Homework are in that section.

Avg. time for Students to read &
complete homework: 4 hrs.

Large Animal: Beef, Sheep and 11

Swine

Objectives

After mastering the material in this chapter, you will be able to:
 Calculate heritable characteristics
 Calculate the offspring percent to market
 Determine Weaning Weights
 Determine the ratio of males to females for breeding
 Birthing rates for male and female
 Calculate the costs of growing and feeding livestock in relation to mortalities
 Determine market and feed-lot margins

Animal Breeding
Livestock researchers and breeders are continually looking at livestock genetics to improve breed
productivity. There is a continual effort of evaluation of both sires and dams to improve herds and
flocks. Animal agriculture is a business, and those engaged in it want to realize higher profits, which
occur by improved breeds that have better fertility, higher birth rates, wean heavier offspring, express
a rate of grain that is higher and more efficient that their ancestors, have a greater longevity, will
produce more milk for pounds of feed, have a higher carcass weight and consistently grade higher for
meat to maximize profitability of offspring.
The rate of improvement for a trait realized in a herd or flock is dependent upon the heritability of
the trait. The heritability is the percent of observable variation (phenotype) which is due to the
animals’ genetic characteristics. Research has provided estimates of heritability for various traits.
Table 11.1 shows some of these heritability estimates.

Figure 11.1

Many University Animal breeding quality. They are
Science departments purchased by the cattle
annually host and sponsor rancher to improve their
a Bull and Heifer Test Sale breeding herd for
to the beef industry with the increased meat production
intention to improve the sold to markets, and
breeding stock and herds. increase their profits.
These breeding animals What is a bull or heifer
are tested and evaluated worth to a breeding
for weight gain and program?

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