Growth Hormone as a Predictor of Future Performance in Beef Females

Previous work at this station has established a need for predictors of cow efficiency available at weaning or yearling ages. While the weaning weight of a cow\u27s calf has relatively high accuracy in predicting the efficiency of the dam (60 to 70%), the weaning weight of the cow has only a 1% accuracy. This study was undertaken to determine if levels of circulating growth hormone measurable at young ages would provide a useful means of predicting cow efficiency and other measures of cow performance