Injectable vitamin A was given to six pregnant beef cows in their last third of pregnancy to study the effect of this vitamin in their calves. Average birth weight and growth rate of calves from the treated cows were higher than that of calves from the nontreated cows. Prepartum vitamin A injections also resulted in a significant increase (P less than 0.05) in the mean corpuscular volume (MCV), total serum protein and globulin fraction of serum protein in calves of treated cows.
Body weight and nine body measurements were recorded on 79 mature Kedah-Kelantan cows at two locations. The Kedah-Kelantan is an indigenous cattle of Malaysia. A principal component analysis was used to study size and shape as indicated by the dependence structure among measurements. The total variation among measurements associated with the first principal component which was interpreted as a measure of general size was 40.8%. The second principal component contrasted cows tall at the withers, and deep at the chest with top line sloping downward and under line sloping upward from front to rear with those having less wither height and chest depth and straighter lines. This contrast accounted for 14.3% of the variation in body dimensions. The third principal component contrasted long, narrow, and deeper cows with a more compact type. This contrast accounted for 10.7% of the variation in body dimensions.