Effects of Body Measurements and Weight on Calf Size and Calving Difficulty of Holsteins

Abstract

Body measurements (heart and paunch girths, wither height, chest depth, pelvic length and width, and body length), body weight, and calving evaluation data (calf birth weight, calf sex, calf presentation, and calving assistance needed) were collected from 1974 parities of 762 Holstein cows between 1968 and 1986. Degree of calving assistance was scored continuously from 1 (no assistance) to 10 (hard mechanical assistance). Phenotypic correlations of dam body traits with calf birth weight were all significantly positive when combined for all parities and ranged from .23 for paunch girth to .27 for body weight and heart girth. Correlations of dam body traits with calving assistance scores were all significantly negative across parities and ranged from -.24 to -.30. Correlations of calf birth weight with calving assistance were higher for first parity (.37) than for all parities (.20). Least squares analysis showed that cows with shorter wither height and shorter pelvises tended to require more calving assistance. Heavier calves, winter calvings, and earlier parity all were related to increased dystocia. Male calves were heavier than female calves and also were associated with greater calving difficulty.

Lunar Cycle Influences Spontaneous Delivery in Cows

“…Although we used data from cattle only, our findings support the relationship between lunar phases and parity hypothesized by Ghiandoni et al . In addition, dystocia is a widely accepted risk during first parturition in cows, reflecting smaller sizes and weights of younger primiparous dams [18]. Dystocia can last for several days in heifers, and thus advances or delays in time of birth could be sufficient to influence our findings.…”

Pelvic Parameters, Growth Rate, Puberty, and their Interrelationships in Young Dairy Heifers

“…There is evidence in the literature to confirm the above results but it has been shown that nutrition and the energy status of the diet, which affects growth rates, could be related to pelvic measurements. Sieber et al (1989) reported that external pelvic length does not show any significant regression coefficient on milk production, but that higher pelvic width measurements tend to be correlated with larger milk yields. Wiltbank and Remmenga (1982) claimed that heifers on a high-energy diet had a larger precalving pelvic area than did those on a lower nutritional level.…”

“…Pelvic-area measurements have been shown to be influenced by age (Price and Wiltbank 1978), breed (Singleton and Nelson 1971), nutrition (Makarechian et al 1987), growth promoters (Anthony et al 198l), and body weight (Sieber et al 1989). Many studies have been conducted in an attempt to predict calving difficulties and birth weight by using skeletal measurements such as the size of the pelvis (Laster 1974;Naazie et al 1989;Schwabe and Hall 1989;van Donkersgoed et al 1990;KO and Ruble 1990;Deutscher 1991).…”

Field Investigation of Perinatal Mortality in Friesian Cattle Associated with Myocardial Degeneration and Necrosis

“…Schwabe and Hall (1989) investigated the risk factors for dystocia occurring in British breeds of cattle; ease of calving in Friesian heifers was not related solely to fetal birth weights within a range of 37-41 kg. Seiber et al (1989) recorded data from 739 calving dairy heifers; mean fetal birth weight was 38 kg and calving difficulties were associated with delivery of larger calves. Stillbirths associated with heifer calvings have been described frequently in the literature (Dufty 1979: Gee et al 1989: Sluijter et al 1990, the rates varying between 15% and 36%.…”