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Maintenance energy
The amount of feed energy required per day by an animal to maintain its body weight and support necessary metabolic functions.
Phenotype
Maintenance energy cannot be easily measured and therefore must be estimated. Maintenance energy requirements are influenced by the weight and productivity of the animal (growth and milk). As weight, growth and milk production increase maintenance requirements also increase.
Adjusted Value
Because this is an estimated value it is not adjusted.
Contempory Group
Genetic Evaluation
Currently, there are no genetic evaluations for maintenance energy.
Usage
This trait could make valuable contributions to economic selection indices by accounting for some of the variation in feed intake. However, because this is an estimated value, instead of a measured value, identifying the more efficient animals will be a challenge.
