Doing a school project, need ideas and data concerning cattle

[steer711]

I am doing a math project over statistics. It is to be done over somthing that I have an intrest in so I want to do it over a cattle related topic. It needs to be information with a liner relationship and I am stumped. :-\ I also need 25 points on the scatter plot. I would like to do it over cow calve data or feeding cattle or time spent with cattle but just need some ideas on how to make it all work. Any advice or information would be hugly Appreciated. Due friday but I need to get it done ASAP. Thanks alot in advance. <beer>

 

[Barry Farms]

Google relations between breed %'s and behavoiur (temperment) or weight gain or birth weight, there is so much data out there you just have to look for what fits your needs.

 

[simba]

like Barry Farms' idea about doing something to do with birthweights. Birthweight to weaning weight ratios would be interesting and anyone who keeps decent records should be able to provide you with the info you need. I would just put birthweights (probably from 75-100 lbs, depeding on the information you have) on the Y axis and weaning weights on the X. If you can keep the breed, breeder, and year the same, you'd probably have fairly accurate results. It's nice to see some schools have math teachers that think out of the box. Whatever data you decide to use, post it on here, I'm sure it will be interesting!

 

[leanbeef]

Right...any two traits that are either positively or negatively correlated should work for a statistics project. Birth weight & either weaning or yearling weight was also the first thing that came to my mind. It may seem too easy, but it would be a relatively straightforward concept to explain and a fairly simple relationship for other folks to understand, even if they don't know much about cattle. I might even be able to volunteer to provide you some raw data on at least 25 calves in one contemporary group if you need data. I can't guarantee that my data would match what is statistically expected, but I would be interested in finding out if it did.

I'm not sure there are two traits that are any more important economically to every segment of the beef industry, and because there is a negative correlation, meaning selection for one means pressure in the wrong direction for the other... I think that would be an interesting relationship to explore. For as long as people raise cattle, the relationship between birth weight and growth performance will be an important thing to address with both genetics and management.

 

[Limiman12]

Would be able to get BW and weaning rate info from most registries I would think.....  Limousin foundation has it on line.

 

[steer711]

Right...any two traits that are either positively or negatively correlated should work for a statistics project. Birth weight & either weaning or yearling weight was also the first thing that came to my mind. It may seem too easy, but it would be a relatively straightforward concept to explain and a fairly simple relationship for other folks to understand, even if they don't know much about cattle. I might even be able to volunteer to provide you some raw data on at least 25 calves in one contemporary group if you need data. I can't guarantee that my data would match what is statistically expected, but I would be interested in finding out if it did.

I'm not sure there are two traits that are any more important economically to every segment of the beef industry, and because there is a negative correlation, meaning selection for one means pressure in the wrong direction for the other... I think that would be an interesting relationship to explore. For as long as people raise cattle, the relationship between birth weight and growth performance will be an important thing to address with both genetics and management.

I would really appreciate if you could get me some BWs, and weaning weights or yearly weights if its not a hassel. Not asking you to dig out some books that are burried anywhere though lol

 

[Limiman12]

Here is link to last January Iowa beef expo Limousin sale catalog......  70 some lots all with bw and weaning weights......  http://www.iowabeefexpo.com/pdf/2013/2013-IBE-Limousin-Catalog.pdf

Also, on the schedule page is links to other breed catalogue s, I would assume they all would have the same info.

 

[jbzdad]

even simpler would be just to plot weight vs age with age being between 170 and 220 days... that should give you a pretty decent looking distribution... if you had say 75 birthdates and weights all on the same date you could then calculate the age in days and graph it ... That is how the breed associations come up with and "adjusted weaning weight"

 

[steer711]

Here is link to last January Iowa beef expo Limousin sale catalog......   70 some lots all with bw and weaning weights......   http://www.iowabeefexpo.com/pdf/2013/2013-IBE-Limousin-Catalog.pdf

Also, on the schedule page is links to other breed catalogue s, I would assume they all would have the same info.

thank you I like the Bws and WWs of the bulls I looked through the ohio maine sale and the epds were not so acompany to each other meaning they didnt look related very well. the iowa bulls look good though. thank you to all who through around suggestions. Its very appreciated

 

[Sassy2899]

you could do the statistics of cull cows.  Culls cows for a cow calf operation USUALLY are around 30%.  You could relate this back to how it would mean a decrease in the total number of calving cows for a particular operation.  Cull cows doesn't just mean old, broke mouth cows.  It also covers cattle that don't breed back or pass on genetic traits not suitable for the operation at hand.  Hope this helps you get started and good luck on your project.  (thumbsup)

 

[knabe]

How out the relationship between feed efficiency and gain.

 

[HGC]

How about looking at the relationship between BW and gestation length.  I've been keeping track of my gestation length since 2008, I have about 150 records (since 2008) of single live births with gestation and birth weigth data.  If you are interested in it, shoot me a pm and I will email it to you.  I can easily merge it into one excel file.