Dystocia in Friesian cows and its effects on postpartum reproductive performance and milk production

Abstract

A total of 1,243 records for 585 dairy Friesian cows from 1997–2004 were used to study the factors affecting dystocia and its effects on reproductive performance and milk production. The overall incidence of dystocia was 6.9%. The percentage of dystocia decreased with increasing live body weight, age, and parity of cows (P < 0.05); however, it increased with increasing birth weight of calves (P < 0.05). The highest percentage of dystocia was detected in winter season, but the least percentage was in summer season (P < 0.05). The percentage of incidence of dystocia was significantly (P < 0.05) higher with winter feeding compared to summer ration (8.2% vs. 5.1%). The percentage of incidence of dystocia was significantly (P < 0.05) higher with twinning than single calving (15.5% vs. 6.5%), while not significantly affected by the sex of born calves. Incidence of dystocia had adverse effects on reproductive performance and milk yield. The service interval, service period, days open, and calving interval were significantly (P < 0.05) longer in cows afflicted with dystocia compared to normal cows. The conception rate was lower (P < 0.05), but the number of service per conception was higher (P < 0.05) in cows afflicted with dystocia compared to normal cows (60.5% vs. 73.0% and 3.4 vs. 2.7, respectively). Average daily milk yield was lower (P < 0.05) by 1 kg for cows with incidence of dystocia compared to normal cows.

Effect of calf sex on some productive, reproductive and health traits in Holstein cows

“…It has been shown that there are discrepancies between yield of their dam. Similar to the results of this study Gaafar et al (2011) andGhavi Hossein-Zadeh (2013), investigating the effect of dystocia on performance of Holstein cows, reported that cows with male calves had higher incidence of dystocia compared with cows with female calves, and dystocia had significant effect on milk production. Fabrice et al (1995) found a significant difference for milk yield between cows with female or male calves (female calves produced 117 kg more milk during a 23-year period in that study).…”

“…Studies reported a high correlation between LL and CI (Haile-Mariam et al, 2003;Chegini, 2010). Also, Gaafar et al (2011) found that percentage of dystocia was significantly lower with feeding summer ration compared with winter ration. Probably, summer calves can recover earlier and would have shorter calving to first service and consequently shorter days open and CI.…”

“…According to the findings in this study, it can be concluded that calf sex influence on PL by affecting milk yield, persistency and CI. Although cows that give birth to female calves have lower percentage of dystocia and better reproductive performance (Eaglen et al, 2011;Gaafar et al, 2011), born of a female calf lead to higher milk and fat production, presumably because of bearing less stress and pain during calving in comparison with born of a male calf, and experience of more energy imbalance that can cause more metabolic disorders and consequently shortened PL.…”

“…ration in different seasons (Afzal et al, 2007;Gaafar et al, 2011). In addition, seasonal stress due to extreme temperatures and humidity may suppress production.…”

“…Also, sex of calf in the first three calvings was coded "3" if all of first three calves were male, "2" if effect of widespread and limited use of sexed semen on the genetic progress. Berry et al (2007) and Gaafar et al (2011) investigated the effect of different factors on dystocia and subsequently effect of dystocia on performance of dairy cows. They indicated that dystocia significantly reduced whole lactation milk yield.…”