Table 1.
Nutritional and husbandry protocols used throughout the first 12 weeks of the study.
All calves in Group A (ad libitum MR access) and Group R (restricted MR access) were fed and housed using the described protocols.
Fig 1.
Milk replacer and calf concentrate consumption for Group A and Group R calves.
a) Mean (95%CI) daily MR consumption for heifer calves in Group A (blue), and MR allowance for Group R animals (red) and b) mean weekly concentrate intakes (kg) for a subset of calves in Group A (blue, n = 9) and Group R (red, n = 7) from birth until 12 weeks of age.
Table 2.
Mean daily live weight gains from birth until 12 weeks.
Daily live weight gains for heifer calves in both Group A and R week split into 4 periods throughout the first 12 weeks of life.
Fig 2.
Predicted marginal means (95% CI) for morphometric measures.
a) body weight (kg), b) BCS c) belly girth (cm), and d) heart girth (cm) for calves in Group A (blue) and R (red) from birth until 12 weeks of age. Full models are presented in S1 supporting information.
Table 3.
Multivariable regression model for the association between body weight and pre-weaning dietary group.
Multivariable regression model for body weight and its association with dietary group from 0 to 108 weeks of life, including potential confounders. Calf was included as a random effect. The residual variance attributed to individual calf ID was 34.3% (95% CI 28.0–41.4). Coefficients for time (in weeks) and interaction terms are omitted for clarity.
Table 4.
Random-effects parameters for multivariable regression model for the association between body weight and pre-weaning dietary group.
Fig 3.
Predicted marginal means (95% CI) for skeletal morphometric measures.
a) withers height (cm), b) loin height (cm) c) crown-rump length (cm), and d) hock-fetlock length (cm) for calves in Group A (blue) and R (red) from birth until 12 weeks of age. Full models are presented in S1 supporting information.
Fig 4.
Kaplan- Meier survival curves for morphometric measures relating to first service parameters.
Proportion of heifers not yet reaching a) 380 kg and b) 125cm withers height in Group A (blue line) and Group R (red line).
Fig 5.
Kaplan- Meier survival curves for measured KPI’s.
Proportion of heifers not yet reaching a) puberty, b) first service and c) conception in Group A (blue line) and Group R (red line).
Table 5.
Key Performance Indicators at key reproductive stages for heifers in both pre-weaning groups.
Mean (95% CI) age, body weight, withers height and body condition score for all heifers at 3 key events in the study; the onset of puberty, first service and conception.
Table 6.
Cox regression models for time to achieving pre-determined morphometric targets, puberty, first service and conception.