Appearance charateristics and growth perfroamcne of crossbreds (Wagyu × lai Zebu) in Thai Binh province
The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the appearance characteristics, growth performance traits of WGLZ crossbred calves in Thai Binh province from January 2020 to June, 2022. A total of 67 WGLZ crossbred calves were numbered and monitored. Routine and conventional methods were applied for this research. Descriptive statistics and Proc GLM in MINITAB16 were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the appearance of the WGLZ crossbred calves is relatively uniform, the coat color of black-gray and red-brown accounted for the most proportion with 87.88%; black-yellow colour accounted for 3.03%; the proportionof white-spotted calves accounted for 9.09%. WGLZ crossbred calves have higher body weight and growth rate than Zebu crossbred calves; average birth weight was 24.46 kg/calf; at 12 months old reached up to 237.1 kg and at 18 months old reached up to 306.2 kg/calf. Their body weights were 10.26 to 30.45% higher than those of BrLS calves; higher than LS calves from 34.26 to 55.03% in the periods from birth to 18 months old. The body weight of WGLBr crossbred calves group was higher than of WGLS. The ADGs of the WGLZ group by the age classes reached from 448.10g/calf/day to 750.90 g/calf/day; 33.93% higher than the BrLS group; 30.17 to 60.09% higher than the LS group. In which, the ADGs of WGLBr group achieved from 320.40 g/calf/day to 769.60 g/calf/day.
