Short communication: Verifying Holstein heifer heart girth to body weight prediction equations

The estimation of Holstein heifer body weight (BW) from heart girth measurements is needed, as many farms do not have animal scales to make the management decisions that require BW. The correlation between heart girth and BW is known to vary with differing animal conformation. The previous equation to correlate the 2 measures for Holstein dairy heifers was done 25 yr ago. Data were derived from 6 US experiment stations that are part of Regional Research Project NC-2042: Management Systems to Improve the Economic and Environmental Sustainability of Dairy Enterprises. After deriving a new equation from a data set of observations and using a second validation data set, it was determined that the equation developed in 1992 was still valid and further equation development was not needed at this time.