Calving ease and stillbirth in dairy herds using beef and dairy breed bulls
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different sire breeds on calving traits when used in dairy herds. Records from 1,423,851 calvings from 1990-2016 were collected from the Swedish milk recording scheme from Swedish Holstein, Red dairy cattle, Hereford, Charolais, Aberdeen Angus,...
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| Formato: | H2 |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés sueco |
| Publicado: |
SLU/Dept. of Animal Breeding and Genetics (until 231231)
2017
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| Materias: |
| Sumario: | The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different sire breeds on calving traits when
used in dairy herds. Records from 1,423,851 calvings from 1990-2016 were collected from
the Swedish milk recording scheme from Swedish Holstein, Red dairy cattle, Hereford,
Charolais, Aberdeen Angus, Limousin and Simmental sires mated with Swedish Holstein,
Red dairy cattle or crossbred dams. Calving ease was defined in two categories, easy or
difficult calving. Stillbirth was defined as dead at calving or within 24 hours of birth. The data
were analyzed for both traits for first and later parities separately.
The frequencies of difficulties at calving in first parity ranged from 3.2% to 7.6%. The highest
frequencies were found for Charolais and Simmental sires, and the lowest for Aberdeen
Angus and Red dairy cattle sires. The incidence of stillbirth ranged from 1.4% to 5.0% in first
parity, where Swedish Holstein sires gave the highest incidence of stillbirth and Hereford and
Aberdeen Angus the lowest. The frequency of difficulties at calving and the incidence of
stillbirths were in general lower in later parities compared to first parity.
Swedish Holstein and Red dairy cattle sires gave significantly less difficulties at calving
compared to Charolais, Hereford, Limousin and Simmental sires in first parity, but were not
significantly different from Hereford sires in later parities. Aberdeen Angus sires were
performing significantly better than all other beef breeds in first parity, but were not
significantly different from Hereford sires in later parities. Charolais gave significantly more
difficulties at calving than all sire breeds, except for Simmental in first parity. Swedish
Holstein sires gave significantly higher incidences of stillbirth than Aberdeen Angus,
Hereford, Limousin and Simmental sires in first parity. All beef breeds gave significantly
lower incidence of stillbirth than sires in both dairy breeds in later parities. There was no
significant difference in the incidence of stillbirth between beef breeds in later parities. There
was some re-ranking of beef sire breeds depending on which breeding values (based on
records from purebred beef herds or from beef-dairy crosses) had been used. |
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