Biometric evaluation of Brazilian Crioula Lageana cattle.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate biometric measures of Crioula Lageana cattle breed at different ages, to establish patterns of variation of these measures, contributing to the phenotypic characterization of the breed. Body measurements (body length, shoulder height, thoracic perimeter, rump height, rump width and rump length) were collected from 346 animals from three different regions of the Santa Catarina State Plateau (Campos de Curitibanos, Coxilha Rica and Campos de Caçador). The biometric measurements were evaluated in relation to age, gender and region of origin. Statistical analysis was performed using SAS version 9.3. The procedures used included analysis of variance, correlations, cluster, discriminant and canonical analysis. Statistical difference between males and females was observed for all measurements, except rump height, demonstrating sexual dimorphism. Rump height varied up to 3 and 5 years of age and body length varied in animals over 11 years of age; while rump width and thoracic perimeter varied up to 7 and 9 years of age. On average, 50% of the animals were classified correctly, indicating little difference between regions for biometric traits. Also, animals from Campos de Curitibanos were those with greater distance from the other two regions of the Santa Catarina plateau. Correlations between shoulder height, rump width and length were above 0.80. So, rump length could be considered the measurement best suited for assessment of body size of this breed due to the high correlation with the other measures and the easy way to assess this parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]