Comparison of Non Linear Models and Artificial Neural Network to Describe the Liveweight from Birth to Maturity in Female Jersey Cattle

Abstract

Evaluation of growth data is an important strategy to manage gross feed requirement in female Jersey cattle in the New Derived Guinea Savannah Zone of Nigeria. Two non-linear functions (Gompertz and Logistic) and Neural network models were used to fit liveweight (LW)-age data using the non linear procedure of JMP statistical software. Data used for this study were collected from 150 Jersey female cattle in Shonga Dairy Farm, Kwara, State from 2010-2018. The Neural network function showedthe best goodness of fit. Both the Gompertz and Logistic functions overestimated LW at birth, 3, 36, 48, 60 and 72months respectively. NN function overestimated the LW at 0, 3, 24, 36 and 72 months. The Gompertzfunction had the best estimation of asymptotic weight (649.51 kg) with average absolute growth rate (0.061 kg/day).The inflection point was 15.95, 9.55 and 34.5 months in Logistic, Gompertz and neural network models, respectively. A strong and positive correlation was observed between asymptote and inflection point in Gompertz functions. The metrics of goodness of fit criteria (R2 and RMSE), showed that NN with multilayer perceptron was superior to the other models but Gompertz model, was best in its ability to approximate complex functions of growth curve parametersin female Jersey cattle.