Sustainability & efficiency

Correlations and repeatability of feed efficiency and emission traits between growing and finishing phases in beef cattle

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Abstract

Evaluating residual feed intake in both growing and finishing phases allows the identification of animals likely to maintain this trait under different conditions. This study analyzed 356 Hereford steers from twelve feed intake (FI) trials (six growing, six finishing), in which RFI was estimated separately for each phase. The objective of this work was to compare performance traits between phases, including RFI, dry matter intake (DMI), average daily gain (ADG), metabolic weight (MWT), backfat thickness (BFAT), and in a subset of 83 steers daily methane production (DMP), and methane related traits measured using GreenFeed system simultaneously on FI trials. We estimated Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients (rP and rS) and assessed repeatability by calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) and their associated standard errors from linear mixed-effects models. Trait values were adjusted for trial effects using a linear model, and the resulting residuals were used for correlation and repeatability analyses. In addition, an analysis of variance (GLM) was performed to evaluate differences among RFI efficiency groups within production phases. For RFI, Pearson's and Spearman's correlations between phases were moderate and positive (rP = 0.565 and rS = 0.551; P ≤ 0.001). Similar patterns were observed for DMI (rP = 0.626 and rS = 0.618), ADG (rP = 0.384 and rS = 0.386), and MWT (rP = 0.890 and rS = 0.878), all showing the same level of statistical significance (P ≤ 0.001). Intraclass correlation coefficient estimates (± standard error) were 0.56 ± 0.04 for RFI, 0.62 ± 0.03 for DMI, 0.38 ± 0.04 for ADG, 0.88 ± 0.01 for MWT, and 0.57 ± 0.04 for BFAT, indicating moderate to high consistency of these traits across phases. Correlations for DMP on the subset were rP = 0.238 and rS = 0.312; P ≤ 0.05) and ICC estimates (± standard error) were 0.47 ± 0.09 for DMP, and similar values with larger standard errors for methane related traits reflecting the smaller sample size. Comparisons among RFI classes confirmed significantly lower DMI in efficient animals in both phases, with reductions of 23% and 16% between high and low efficiency groups during the growing and finishing phases, respectively. DMP did not differ significantly among RFI classes, despite showing positive correlations with DMI in both the growing (rₚ = 0.529) and finishing (rₚ = 0.336) phases. These results show that RFI and related performance traits have moderate to high repeatability between growing and finishing stages. Repeatability estimates closely matched the observed correlation patterns, indicating that differences among subjects accounted for a substantial portion of the total variance. Incorporating more animals with methane emission records and efficiency data would support using early-life evaluations to identify animals with consistently superior feed efficiency.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Ciappesoni, G., Navajas, E., Peraza, P. & Pravia, M., (2026) “Correlations and repeatability of feed efficiency and emission traits between growing and finishing phases in beef cattle”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2286839. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.24141

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