Importance Of Coat-Type In Cattle

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30342, 18 January 1964, Page 7

Importance Of Coat-Type In Cattle

THERE is quite a lot of difference of opinion in Queensland about the merits of Zebu and Zebu cross cattle and the traditional British breeds. Mr J. F. Kennedy, officer in charge of the national cattle breeding station at Belmont, 20 miles north of Rockhampton, says quite clearly that his station is not recommending the use of crossbred cattle, but in its work with Brahman, and Africander cattle with British breeds it is seeking to identify characters responsible for differences in performance which may be incorporated in a system of selection within a breed of one’s own selection.

Mr Kennedy does not see a place for the Zebu type of cattle in New Zealand and he says that under' conditions of adequate nutrition the British breeds will do better. He does, however, see a role in New Zealand for the sort of criteria for cattle selection which are being evolved at Belmont.

Belmont, a property of 7000 acres, of which twothirds is low level heavy soil plains subject to. flooding from the Fitzroy river, was purchased by the Australian Meat Board in 1952 to provide facilities- for. studies on the adaptation of cattle to a subtropical environment. The

station is operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and associated with it is a cattle research laboratory in Rockhampton. The station programme has involved the use of the British breeds, the Hereford and Shorthorn, and the crossing of . them within themselves and also with the Zebu type cattle represented in the Brahman and the Africander. The Africander is a horned beast with a reddish coat, prick ears and a long flat face. The Brahman, which is also horned, is, grey to white in colour with a distinct hump and has long flat ears. Mr Kennedy said that this sort of work had, for example, shown that at two and a half years of age the straight Shorthorn weighed 3001 b less than the Brahman Shorthorn cross and it was the station’s purpose to determine why this sort of thing should happen. Discussing work being undertaken by Dr. G. C. Ashton in- testing the efficiency of animals in the utilisation of feed of various quality, Mr Kennedy said . that . the Brahman showed up to advantage in the much more efficient utilisation of low quality feeds .as compared with the British breeds. If the food intake contained less than 5 per cent, crude protein the British breeds would lose weight, but the crude protein content had' to be down to about 3.8 per cent, before the Brahman would lose weight. The importance of this for Australia was that there were a lot of natural pastures of the 3 to 4 per cent, protein, level. Around half of the 3001b' difference' in liveweight was, therefore, accounted tor by efficiency of utilisation of feed.

Mr Kennedy said that the first character that had been studied exhaustively had been coat type—the sleek coat type as compared with the woolly coat, and a series of Scores had been allocated to iridi-. cate degrees of difference. A very sleek coated animal with

a score of one had a skin temperature of 98.5 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with 105.5 for an animal with a coat score of 7 at the other end of the range. A comparison of rate of gain in 10 months after weaning showed that the animal with a coat score of one gained 2501 b, whereas that with a score of ■7 put on only 751 b. And again, whereas 100 Hereford Shorthorn cows with sleek coats gave a calving percentage of 77 a similar number with woolly coats produced only 55 calves. Likewise, British breed cows with a coat score of two produced calves with a birthweight of 781 b, compared with 70.51 b where the coat score of the mothers was six.

In a further investigation of this characteristic, Mr Kennedy said that one half of a herd of 120 mixed sex cattle had been clipped and kept sleek coated for a year. The body temperature of the clipped animals had been lowered by two degrees and they had given a 13 per cent, greater weight gain than their woolly mates, but had the clipped animals been naturally sleek coated Mr Kennedy said that a gain of 28 per cent, over woolly animals might have been expected.. From all this, Mr Kennedy said it was indicated that the coat was of greater significance than purely an insulating cover. This sort of principle was applicable from Lae in New Guinea to Victoria, and while its effect would be more marked in New Guinea it would also apply in New Zealand.

A C.5.1.R.0. publication says that calves with a good coat score at 16 months show three times the improvement in growth rate over the following 12 months, compared with that shown by calves which had a good growth rate this, means-that coat -score is a better guide than early from weaning to 16 months, growth rate for culling purposes.' Heritability of coat score is also high (60 per cent.) so that selection of cows and bulls is effective in changing the coat type of progeny. The most desirable animal is said to have a short, straight coarse haired coat with a low density. A longhaired animal .with hairs that are straight and coarse may, however, be superior to one with short, fine curly hairs. In work .with - more than 300 to 400 animals from birth to three or four years it has also been demonstrated that in animals with red coats like the Hereford, Shorthorn and Africander those with, a deep red hue are more thrifty than their lighter coloured mates. Mr Kennedy said that there was also no reason why selection of sires should not be based bn those with the lowest body temperatures, but care had to be taken to see that the animals were all in a similar state when select tion was made. The general principle is that best doers are those animals with a low body temperature and this principle is now being used in some Australian herds. A further basis for selection, which as yet did not have a practical application, was thyroid activity which controlled growth rate, and another possibility would be relative energy requirements between different breeds and crosses and the characteristics associated with it. Mr Kennedy said that the objective of all this work was to isolate and prove a series of characters responsible for thrift in beef cattle production which could be used in selection in a range of environments and in the breed of the grazier’s choosing. Cattle, bred at Belmont are being tested at a series of environmental testing stations located 90 miles from Alice Springs, at Katherine, 200 miles south of Darwin, Ingham, 90 miles north of Townsville, and- in New Guinea.