EVALUATION OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE GROWTH INTENSITY OF CHAROLAIS CALVES

The aim of study was to evaluate the growth indicators in total of 1,986 purebred Charolais calves in relation to the sex, year of birth, birth season of the calves and also dam´s parity. At the same time, the object of work was to evaluate cows’ longevity. We found higher values of live weight in bulls (P 0.05), the occurrence of twins showed lower birth weight (P 0.001) and weaning weight (P 0.05). The spring season of calving had an influence on lighter offspring in birth weight (P 0.001) as well as in pre-weaning period (P 0.001); the heaviest calves were born in the winter calving season. Calves born to primiparous cows were markedly lighter at birth (P 0.05), at the age of 120 days (P 0.05), and also at the weaning (P 0.05) than those born to older cows. The linear model characterized by the coefficient of determination for all fixed effects was R² = 0.714862% for birth weight (BLW), R² = 0.375164% for weight at 120 days (LW120) and R² = 0.473550% for weaning weight (LW210). On the basis of the results, we can observe the increased growth performance of calves over the years, pointing to the adaptation of Charolais to conditions in Slovakia.