Dystocia in Reciprocally Crossed Angus, Hereford and Charolais Cattle

Abstract

DYSTOCIA is an economically important trait in beef cattle: in that cows having difficulty at calving produce a smaller percentage of live calves. The literature contains only a few reports concerning dystocia in the major British beef breeds. The recent interest in crossbreeding and the upsurge of the Charolais breed, especially for crossbreeding purposes: has caused dystocia to become of increasing concern. The widespread use of Charolais bulls for crossbreeding has probably been slowed somewhat by the fear of calving difficulties when large calves are produced by using larger bulls. Even though there are several reports of dystocia in the foreign literature where Charolais bulls have been used on European breeds of cows, there are virtually no reports of this nature where Charolais bulls have been used on British beef cows in the United States. The objective of this study was to determine the amount of calving difficulty experienced when Angus, Hereford and Charolais were crossed. Also, other factors possibly affecting dystocia were studied.