EXTERIOR PECULIARITIES OF YOUNG MANDOLONG CATTLE OF DIFFERENT AGE AND GENDER GROUPS
The dynamics of linear growth of young animals of different sex and physiological condition with age have been studied. The object of the study was Mandolong beef cattle, first imported to the territory of Russia (LLC «Neprik» Farm Enterprise», Samara region, Borsky district) from Australia in 2010. The animals are large, tall, well adapted to pasture feeding and milk yielding of cows is in average 2500-2800 kg per lactation. The calves in the suckling period are characterized by high energy growth, i.e. about 1600-1800 g/per day, individual animals at weaning at the age of 8 months are weighing 420-450 kg. The body measuring of young animals at different ages showed that the lowest coefficients of the animals' points increase were for the heights measurements, while the highest ones were for the width measurements, characterizing the development of the chest and the torso hip. The steers of all the age periods exceeded the castrates and heifers in the basic body measurements.