Surundaeva LG, Varshalevskaya AM.

Animal Husbandry and Fodder Production. 2026. Vol. 109. No. 3. Р. 174-185.

doi: 10.33284/2658-3135-109-3-174

Original article

 

Dynamics of productive traits of Kazakh White-Headed heifers of different birth seasons

 

Lyubov’ G Surundaeva1, Anna M Varshalevskaya2

1,2Federal Research Centre of Biological Systems and Agrotechnologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Orenburg, Russia

1lusour@mail.ru

2amvar@mail.orb.ru

            Abstract. Studying the relationship between the growth and development of Kazakh White-Headed young cattle and the birth season is economically important and relevant. The object of the study were Kazakh White-Headed heifers born in 2024, registered in the IAS "Seleks myasnoy" from birth to 15 months of age at the "IMENI FURMANOVA" Ltd. of the Orenburg region. Heifers of winter and spring birth seasons significantly exceeded their peer groups of autumn by 10.81 kg, and spring birth season by 8.10 kg when they reaching the age of weaning from their dams. The average daily gain of winter-born heifers during suckling up to 7 months of age was 48.26 g (7.40%, P≤0.01) higher than that of autumn-born heifers. The spring-born analogues were 37.5 g (5.85%, P≤0.05) superior to their autumn-born counterparts. At the age of 15 months, a significant superiority was noted in the group of heifers born in the winter season over their counterparts born in other seasons of the year. A similar trend continued in the post-weaning period: heifers born in the winter season retained their advantage in increasing the average daily gain over their counterparts born in the summer and autumn seasons by 50.4 and 42.4 g, respectively (8.53%, P≤0.01 and 7.18%, P≤0.05). The repeatability of live weight at the age of 8 and 15 months, determined by calculating the correlation coefficient, had the highest value (r=0.532) in the group of heifers born in the spring season, in the other groups this indicator was at the level of r=0.265 for the winter birth season, r=0.174 and r=0.139 for the summer and autumn birth seasons, respectively. The effect of the birth season of heifers on live weight at weaning at the age of 205 days was 18.43% (P≤0.001) of the total number of factors influencing the increase in live weight during the suckling period. An advantage in productive traits of heifers born in the winter-spring period was 4.5-6.0% higher compared to those born in the summer-autumn period.

Keywords: heifers,  Kazakh White-Headed breed, birth season, live weight, growth rate

Acknowledgments: the work was performed in accordance to the plan of research works for 2026-2028 FSBRI  FRC BST RAS (No. FNWZ-2026-0001).

For citation: Surundaeva LG, Varshalevskaya AM. Dynamics of productive traits of Kazakh White-Headed heifers of different birth seasons. Animal Husbandry and Fodder Production. 2026;109(3):174-185. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.33284/2658-3135-109-3-174

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            Information about the authors:

            Lyubov’ G Surundaeva, Dr. Sci. (Biology), Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Genetic Examination and Books of Breeding Animals, Federal Research Centre of Biological Systems and Agrotechnologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 29, 9 Yanvarya St., Orenburg, 460000, tel.: 8-922-806-49-00.

            Anna M Varshalevskaya, Master's student at the Breeding and Genetic Center for Beef Cattle Breeds, Federal Research Centre of Biological Systems and Agrotechnologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 29, 9 Yanvarya St., Orenburg, 460000.

The article was submitted 19.05.2026; approved after reviewing 29.06.2026; accepted for publication 14.09.2026.

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