The Correlation between Feed Efficiency and Rate of Gain, a Ratio and Its Denominator

Abstract

Formulae are presented for predicting the correlation between a ratio and its denominator in terms of the correlation between the numerator and the denominator and of the coefficients of variation of these 2 variables. Graphs of the predicted values are shown for various ratios of the 2 coefficients of variation, as the primary correlation between numerator and denominator changes from -1.0 to +1.0. Experimental results from mice studies show reasonable agreement between the predicted and the actual correlation between "gain in body weight" and "efficiency of feed use" when the latter is measured by the ratio "feed consumed/gain in body weight.".