Relationship between aging and nutritionally controlled growth rate on heat production of heifers

The first objective of this study was to test how well a function that was developed to describe heat production (HP) in growing ewes fit HP data in growing heifers. The second objective was to determine the pattern of adaptation of HP to feed restriction and subsequent realimentation of nutrients. At 234.5 +/- 0.5 d of age, HP was determined by indirect calorimetry on 32 Meat Animal Research Center III heifers. Following the first calorimetry measurement, heifers on the High-High (HH) treatment continued to receive ad libitum access to feed, and daily feed offered to the Low-High (LH) heifers was set at 157 Mcal of ME/kg of BW0.75. Feed restriction of LH heifers continued for 84 d. After 84 d of restriction, LH heifers were allowed ad libitum access to feed. Heat production was determined 4 and 11 wk following feed restriction and 2, 5, 12, and 18 wk following realimentation. There was no residual bias when HP in ad libitum-fed heifers was estimated with an equation form developed in growing ewes: [(kcal/d) = f(BW, matBW) = BW (Ae[k(BW/mature BW)])], nor was there a residual bias when HP was predicted with an allometric equation: [(kcal/d) = f(BW) = A(BWk)]. However, there were residual biases when HP was estimated with an allometric equation that set the exponent to 0.75. Heat production per unit of BW of LH heifers was lower than that of HH heifers at 4 wk of feed restriction (P < 0.001), but HP did not differ between treatments at 11 wk of feed restriction (P = 0.87). At 2 (P = 0.002) and 5 wk (P < 0.001) following the increase in feed offered, HP per unit of BW of the LH heifers was greater than that of the HH heifers. Heat production did not differ between treatments at 12 and 18 wk following refeeding (P < 0.17). Our findings demonstrate that the relationship between HP and BW is described equally well by a logistic and allometric function, but applying a generalized interspecies exponent in an allometric equation to growing heifers results in a bias in estimating HP. The equation form developed in ewes can be used to develop a single equation for the prediction of HP across ages in heifers.