Morphometric and physical characteristics of Indonesian beef cattle.

Abstract

To assess their potential for beef production, this study describes the morphometrics, physical traits, and body weight of 1034 Indonesian beef cattle from eight breeds, namely Bali, Rambon, Madura, Ongole Grade, Kebumen Ongole Grade, Sasra, Jabres, and Pasundan. An analysis of variance in addition to cluster, Euclidean distance, dendrogram, discriminant function, stepwise linear regression, and morphological index analyses were performed to describe the differences in traits among breeds. The morphometric proximity analysis revealed two distinct clusters with a common ancestor, where the first cluster included Jabres, Pasundan, Rambon, Bali, and Madura cattle and the second included Ongole Grade, Kebumen Ongole Grade, and Sasra cattle, with an average suitability value of 93.20 %. This showed that the classification and validation methods can be used to distinguish breeds. The most important factor in estimating body weight was the heart girth circumference. Ongole Grade cattle had the highest cumulative index, followed by Sasra, Kebumen Ongole Grade, Rambon, and Bali cattle. A cumulative index value $>3$ can be used as a threshold for determining the type and function of beef cattle.