Comparison of growth curve models in Turkish native geese

Abstract

In this study the aim was to compare Bertalanffy, Brody, Gompertz, Logistic and Negative Exponential models on body weight of Turkish native geese. Data were collected from 104 male and 106 female geese for 10 ages. Predicted values from the Negative Exponential model was found to be the worst according to larger distances between estimates and observed, which was a result of over-estimation. The curves obtained from the Bertalanffy and Gompertz models were found to give the best fit. According to the results, the Gompertz model can be suggested for examining goose growth because RMSE values of the Gompertz model were lower than for the Bertalanffy model and had a high coefficient of determination.