Abstract #W387

# W387
Evaluation of industry growth chart equations from birth until first calving of Holstein heifers fed a high plane of nutrition.
Marie E. Iwaniuk*1, Jill A. Davidson2, Catherine M. Bradley2, Tom J. Earleywine3, 1University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 2Purina Animal Nutrition, Gray Summit, MO, 3Land O'Lakes Animal Milk Products, Shoreview, MN.

The 2013 Penn State Customized Heifer Growth Chart (PS) was created as a tool to enable dairy producers to create herd-based heifer performance goals and track the performance of individual heifers until first calving. The prediction equations used in the program were derived from body weight (BW) and hip height (HH) benchmarks established by the 2001 Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle and as previously reported BW and HH prediction equations (Heinrichs et al., 1992; Kertz et al., 1998). These prediction equations were derived from data sets in which heifers were fed standard diets; however, these prediction equations have yet to be evaluated for heifers fed a higher plane of nutrition. The objective of this study was to evaluate the PS prediction equations for BW and HH growth using data of heifers fed a high plane of nutrition at the Purina Animal Nutrition Center. PS growth curves for BW and HH were predicted using mature cow herd data as target parameters. To evaluate the PS equations, residuals were regressed on centered predicted values to detect the presence of mean and/or linear biases using methods published by St-Pierre et al. (2006). For BW, the linear bias was not significant (P = 0.2131); however, a significant mean bias (P < 0.05) indicated that the PS equations overestimate BW by an average of 1.63kg for heifers fed a high plane of nutrition. In regards to HH growth, a significant linear bias (0.53cm; P < 0.05) demonstrated that the PS equations overestimate HH from wk 0 to wk 5 and underestimate HH from wk 20 to wk 100 for heifers fed a high plane of nutrition. In addition, a significant mean bias indicated that the PS equations underestimate HH by an average of 5.41cm (P < 0.05). Moreover, the presence of mean biases for both BW and HH further indicates that collectively the PS equations do not accurately describe overall growth patterns of heifers fed a high plane of nutrition. Therefore, new BW and HH equations should be developed that adjust for level of nutrition.

Key Words: Penn State Customized Heifer Growth Chart, growth curve