Efficiency in Prediction of Egg Weight from Early Measurements

AFTER the introduction of the trapnest, workers have been endeavoring to establish short-term measures of egg production which accurately predict the annual record. Interest in short-period measures was stimulated after it was shown that increase in expected rates of gain in improving egg production was possible by using pullets as breeders (Lerner and Taylor, 1940; Dempster and Lerner, 1947). Short-term or early measures of egg weight have been investigated as well. The average weight of the first ten eggs has been considered (Maw and Maw, 1932) as a method of estimating annual egg weight. Godfrey (1933) studied the increased predictability of annual egg weight by including body weight at first egg and age at first egg in the regression equation in addition to the mean weight of the first ten eggs. Egg weight measured in November was shown to be a more efficient criterion of selection for April egg weight…