Biology

The article discusses the effects of the age and coasting period of prepubertal cattle on oocytes and their development. In order to do this, oocytes were collected from prepubertal heifers and then exposed to one of four different coasting periods (7, 14, 21, or 28 days). The quality of the oocytes and their development were then analyzed. This article appears to be scientifically sound, however, there are some potential areas of improvement. The sample size of the study was relatively small, only 20 animals being used. Further studies should attempt to use a larger sample size in order to test the results more thoroughly and also to control better for any potential outliers that may exist. Additionally, the article does not discuss potential confounding variables that may exist such as varying levels of nutrition and health among the animals used. Future studies should look to control for such things in order to get a more accurate and reliable result.