Growth and Development: Growth, Diet and Performance.

The article presents abstracts of various papers related to growth and development of dairy animals that were presented during the symposium held on July 24-28, 2005 in Cincinnati, Ohio, which was organized by the American Dairy Science Association, the American Society of Animal Science, and the Canadian Society of Animal Science. One of the papers titled "Improved Prediction of Retained Energy in a Dynamic Beef Cattle Growth and Composition Model Accounting for Variable Maintenance," states that animal growth and composition models base their predictions on estimated retained energy. Therefore, variation in maintenance requirements related to previous nutrition and animal state should be accounted for. In a study, the Davis Growth Model was re-parameterized using data from an independent experiment. The dataset contains measurements of diet energy concentration, dry matter intake, and initial and final body composition for 110 animals. Steers were fed one of two diets. Results of the study indicated that accounting for variable maintenance can significantly improve predictions in dynamic models of beef cattle growth and body composition.