Calving difficulty (dystocia) contributes heavily to losses in production in beef cow/calf herds. The obvious losses are due to calves or cows that die at or soon after calving. Less noticeable losses are due to delayed rebreeding, more open females, an extended calving season and increased labor costs. While occasional dystocia is almost unavoidable, through proper management, cattlemen can mi...

Two hundred and forty calf faecal samples from 16 Malaysian farms were screened by PCR for Giardia spp. The overall prevalence was 12.5% and the overall farm prevalence was 68.8% (11/16 farms). The prevalence in pre-weaned and weaned calves was 16.7% and 8.3%, respectively. Sequence analysis of 25 isolates identified all as G. duodenalis assemblage E. Management factors associated with an incre...

A 2-yr study using primiparous and multiparous, spring-calving, crossbred beef cows was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplemental whole corn germ on reproductive performance, calf performance, and serum leptin concentrations. Each year, cows were blocked by age and BCS and assigned randomly to one of three treatments: PRE (n = 115) cows received 1.14 kg/d (DM basis) of whole corn germ f...

Milk yields were measured every 6 weeks from 21220 days after calving in either moderate or low conditioned groups of Angus, Angus x Friesian or Simford first-calf heifers for 3 successive years. Day of peak yield, peak yield and total 220 day yield were calculated by fitting 3 published equations to data on each of the breed x year x calving condition combinations. All equations ranked breed a...

Data on the Red Angus, Angus and Hereford herds of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Des Moines, Iowa, collected from 1968 to 1976, were analyzed for relationships among gestation length, birth weight, prenatal gain (birth weight adjusted for gestation length), growth traits and age at first calving. A total of 5,691 calf records, 1,783 listing gestation length, were included in the study. P...

to study the effects of environmental factors on milk and fat yields (240day) traits of iranian buffaloes, 22596 and 22165 records were utilized for milk and fat yield traits, respectively. uni and bivariate analysis for estimation of (co)variation components of the traits were done in five lactations. milk yield in the 1st lactation had the highest number of records (4482), collected through c...

Effects of selection for 2-yr-old heifer calving ease (reduced calving difficulty score) on phenotypic differences between select and control lines of cattle for birth, growth, yearling hip height, and pelvic measurements were estimated. The selection objective was to decrease calving difficulty score in 2-yr-old heifers, while either maintaining or increasing yearling weight. The control line ...

Body condition score is used as a management tool to predict competency of reproduction in beef cows. Therefore, a retrospective study was performed to evaluate association of BCS at calving with subsequent pregnancy rate, days to first postpartum ovulation, nutrient status (assessed by blood metabolites), and calf BW change in 2- and 3-yr-old cows (n = 351) managed and selected to fit their en...