A Method of Predicting Liveweight from Dissected Leg Weight

Abstract

Ledger (1964) observed that leg weight was a constant of liveweight for 40 Brahma steers regardless of age or degree of fatness, and this paper reports on the liveweight/leg weight relationship for 248 African wild ungulates and 75 boran cattle, suggesting that this constant be used as a method of estimating liveweight. The correlation coefficients, leg weight as a percentage of liveweight, and standard deviations are given for each species. The data indicate that the weight of either foreleg or hindleg as a percentage of liveweight is constant and little affected by either sex, age, or degree of fatness for the nine species examined.