Determination of factors affecting growth performance of calves by meta analysis

In this study, it was aimed to determine the effect of maternal age, genotype, calving season, calving year, calving year, sex and feed factor on daily live weight gain of calves during the growing period by meta-analysis. In the study, 113 research results from articles and theses published between 2013 and 2023 were used. The effect of gender on GCAA was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). Accordingly, it was determined that males had higher values than females due to the positive effect size in terms of daily body weight gain. Feed factor; liquid feeding, roughage, roughage percentage and concentrate feed sources were analyzed as subgroups. The effect of all sub-factors on GCAA was found to be significant (p<0.05). The effect of genotype, calving season and age of dam on GCAA was significant (p<0.05). In conclusion, according to the results of the meta-analysis, sex, genotype, calving season, age at calving, age of dam and feed factors were found to be effective on daily live weight gain of calves.