Colloquium Biometricum

Vol: 43 Page: 47

Authors:

Title:
Problems associated with modelling broiler chicken growth using Statistica

Language: English

Keywords:

growth function

broiler chickens

polynomial function

Summary:
In the present work it was attempted to model broiler chicken growth using Statistica 9.1. Chicken body weight was measured at 7 day intervals, from 7 to 49 days of age. The calculations included 21 production cycles of a selected commercial line of broiler chickens. Parameters of selected growth curves and polynomial functions were estimated for each production cycle and for all the cycles. It was possible to estimate. It was possible to estimate the parameters of growth curves was possible for only some of the cases studied. It was difficult to select both the function and an adequate method of estimating its parameters. Each time the selection was made on a trial basis. From this perspective, the polynomial function was the most suitable as it was possible to estimate its parameters, including standard errors, Student t-values and t-test p values for each of the 21 production cycles and for all the cycles.