Calving Difficulty in Beef Cattle BIF Fact Sheet. William O. Herring. Department of Animal Sciences. Calving difficulty dystocia can increase calf losses, cow mortality, and veterinary and labor costs, as well as delay return to estrus and lower conception rates. In two studies at the U. S. Meat Animal Research Center MARC, Clay Center, Nebraska, calf losses within 2. Calf mortality increased by 0. In a Hereford herd at the Miles City, Montana, Experiment Station, 5. Researchers at MARC noted that the percentage of cows detected in estrus during a 4. Conception to artificial insemination was 6 percent lower in cows experiencing dystocia than in those with no dystocia. Todays News The Riley Report JUNE 2017 Tuesday June 13, 2017 On This Day In History 1777 The Marquis de Lafayette arrived in the American colonies to help with. Pregnancy rate after the entire breeding season 7. At Miles City, the pregnancy rate among cows that had caesarean deliveries was 2. Factors affecting dystocia. Calving difficulty is influenced by many factors, including the following Age of dam. Calfs birth weight. Sex of calf. Dams pelvic area. Dams body size. Gestation length. Breed of sire. Breed of dam. Hot Bizzle City Business Classifieds Marketplace offers business automobile electronics fashion household jobs ads realestate list deals shopping s. Veterinary Botanicals Detox Liver Cleanse How Long Does Hair Detox Last Veterinary Botanicals Detox Liver Cleanse Natural Detox Symptoms Recette Detox Water. Generac 7500 Rv Generator Maintenance Manual Document about Generac 7500 Rv Generator Maintenance Manual is available on print and digital edition. Sires genotype. Dams genotype. Nutrition of dam. Condition of dam. Shape of calf. Position or presentation of fetus. Geographic regions. Other unknown factors. Several of these factors are interrelated in a complex manner. For example, larger cows of larger breeds have larger pelvic areas, which would be an aid to calving. However, larger cows of larger breeds have proportionately bigger calves, which tends to offset the advantage of a larger pelvic area. Age of dam. Table 1 summarizes calving data from MARC and Colorado State University CSU relating age of dam to calving difficulty. These data illustrate that a dams age has a profound effect on the incidence of dystocia. First calf, 2 year old heifers represent the greatest source of trouble to the beef herd owner. Difficulty in 2 year olds is three to four times as high as in 3 year olds, and 3 year olds have about twice as much difficulty as 4 year olds. By the time a cow reaches 4 to 5 years of age, dystocia problems are minimal. Calving difficulty in MARC Hereford and Angus cows was higher than in CSU Hereford cows, presumably because the former tended to be mated to larger exotic sires, whereas the latter were mated only to Hereford sires. Table 1. Effect of dams age on calving difficulty. Dams age. Research station calving difficulty. MARCCSU2 years. 54 percent. Calfs birth weight. Table 2 is taken from a Miles City study correlating calving difficulty with several traits in 2 year old Hereford and Angus heifers. A perfect correlation would be 1. Birth weight of the calf was the trait most highly correlated with calving difficulty, followed by sex of calf. Pelvic area, gestation length, and cow weight had considerably less influence. Researchers have demonstrated since that the influence of gestation length and the sex of the calf on dystocia are generally not direct, but indirect, through their effect on increasing calf size. As gestation length increases, birth weight increases by 0. As birth weight increases, the percent of assisted births increases by 0. Compared with heifer calves, bull calves have 1 to 2 days longer gestation length, weigh 5 to 1. Several researchers have reported that calves requiring assistance weigh 5 to 7 pounds more than those born without assistance. Research has also shown that the impact of birth weight on dystocia is greater in 2 year old cows and that as cows become older birth weight assumes less significance. Table 2. Effect of various traits on dystocia in Hereford and Angus heifers. Trait. Hereford. Angus. Correlation with dystocia. Calfs birth weight. Calfs sex. 4. 7. Pelvic area, pre calving. Gestation length. Cow weight, pre calving. Shape of calf. Many cattle producers believe that differences in a newborn calfs shape can have an important effect on ease of delivery. For example, a slender, lighter muscled, finer boned calf theoretically should be born more easily than a thicker, heavier muscled, coarse boned calf of the same weight. However, researchers at MARC were unable to find any calf shape measurements significantly correlated with calving ease, even though they believe that such relationships probably exist. Some interesting data from Germany showed a relatively high correlation. Simmental sires and the calving difficulty of their subsequent progeny. In France, it was reported that the calfs body length and rump width were significantly correlated with calving difficulty in 2 year old cows. Selection of French beef breeds based on muscle development and growth rate early in life has led to an increase in birth weight and calving difficulty. Breed of sire. Table 3 summarizes MARC data on calves sired by various breeds of bulls and out of Hereford and Angus dams that were 4 years of age or older. Calving difficulty ranged from 3 to 2. Note that sires available in some of the newer breeds may have been rather limited when this study was conducted 1. Installer Failed To Connect To Server. Therefore, the data may not be altogether representative of these same breeds today. Table 3. Breed of sire effects on calving difficulty and birth weight. Breed of sire. Calving difficulty. Birth weight. Hereford and Angus. Jersey. 2. 9 percent. Red Poll. 3. 7 percent. Tarentaise. 6. 0 percent. Sahiwal. 6. 2 percent. Pinzgauer. 6. 3 percent. Gelbvieh. 8. 0 percent. Brown Swiss. 8. 4 percent. Limousin. 9. 4 percent. Brahman. 10. 0 percent. Chianina. 11. 0 percent. South Devon. 11. 9 percent. Simmental. 14. 9 percent. Charolais. 18. 4 percent. Maine Anjou. 20. 4 percent. Overall average. 8. Note. Calves were out of Hereford and Angus cows, 4 years old and older. Breed of dam. Breed of dam effects are presented in Table 4, which summarizes three cycles of the germ plasm study at MARC. In all cases, the cows were F1 half blood cows out of Hereford and Angus dams. In general, most of the breeds of F1 cows did not differ greatly from the Hereford x Angus crosses, which were used as controls in each cycle. However, the Jersey, Brahman, and Sahiwal a Zebu breed F1 cows experienced a somewhat lower incidence of dystocia than the other crosses. Oklahoma researchers reported that 2 year old F1 dairy x beef cross cows experienced only 2. F1 beef x beef cross cows. They suggested that dairy crossbreds may have a biological advantage over beef crossbreds, such as less fat, less muscling, or a more flexible pelvic area. Table 4. Calving difficulty in F1 cows. Breed of cow. Calving difficulty. Cycle I 2 through 8 year oldsHereford Angus X1. Jersey X4 percent. Limousin X9 percent. South Devon X1. 2 percent. Simmental X1. 4 percent. Charolais X1. 2 percent. Cycle ll 2 through 7 year oldsHereford Angus X1. Red Poll X1. 9 percent. Brown Swiss X1. 1 percent. Gelbvieh X1. 5 percent. Maine Anjou X1. 5 percent. Chianina X1. 1 percent. Cycle lll 2 through 5 year oldsHereford Angus X1. Tarentaise X1. 4 percent. Pinzgauer X1. 9 percent. Sahiwal X4 percent. Brahman X3 percent. Nutrition and condition of dam. Many cattle producers believe reducing dietary energy during late pregnancy will decrease fetal size and result in improved calving ease, while increasing energy may increase fetal size and lead to a higher incidence of dystocia. However, research in recent years does not support this view. Hereford and Angus 2 year old cows were fed three levels of energy 1. TDN per head per day for 9. Results are summarized in Table 5.