Bj. Mcguirk et al., THE GENETIC EVALUATION OF BEEF SIRES USED FOR CROSSING WITH DAIRY-COWS IN THE UK - 1 - SIRE BREED AND NONGENETIC EFFECTS ON CALVING SURVEY TRAITS, Animal Science, 66, 1998, pp. 35-45
An analysis has been carried out of over 88000 calving survey records
for bulls of eight beef breeds tested in commercial dairy herds in Eng
land and Wales. The data were collected from 1981 to 1993. The traits
analysed were the degree of difficulty at calving, assessed from no di
fficulty to serious difficulty, calf mortality to 48 h, gestation leng
th, and subjective assessments of calf size and conformation. Major si
re breeds in the survey were the Hereford (30070 records, 93 sires), C
harolais (25816 records, 105 sires) and the Limousin (15420 records, 5
5 sires). Other sire breeds were Belgian Blue (5391 records, 24 sires)
, Simmental (3864 records, 19 sires), Aberdeen Angus (2886 records, 12
sires), Piedmontese (2423 records, 7 sires) and the Blonde d'Aquitain
e (2271 records, 8 sires). Information was routinely recorded on cow a
ge (heifer or mature), sex of the calf, and the year and month of the
calving, while cow size and the regional location of the herd were als
o recorded in later years. Heifers had more difficult calvings, higher
calf losses and shorter gestations than mature cows (all P < 0.05) Se
riously difficult calvings and calf mortality were higher for male cal
ves, which were also larger and had better conformation than heifer ca
lves (P < 0.05). Sire breed effects were significant for all traits, a
lthough sire breed ranking for calving ease was different for cow and
heifer calvings and some interactions involving sire breed were also s
ignificant. For cow calvings, the easiest calving breeds were the Here
ford (1.1%) and the Aberdeen Angus (2.4%), while the Charolais (4.3%),
Blonde d'Aquitaine (3.7%) and Simmental (3.1%) had most difficult cal
vings. Gestation length differed between sire breeds, from Aberdeen An
gus (281.0 days) and Hereford (282.7 days) up to the Limousin (288.1 d
ays) and the Blonde d'Aquitaine (289.0 days). For calf size and confor
mation, the Simmental, Charolais and Blonde d'Aquitaine were the best.
In general, summer months were associated with lower incidences of di
fficult calvings, lower losses and shorter gestations. Large cows had
calves which were larger and of better conformation than small or medi
um cows, but large cows also had longer gestations, more difficult cal
vings and poorer calf survival (all P < 0.05). Statistical models are
discussed that should be used for the genetic evaluation of calving su
rvey traits, when beef bulls are to be used in dairy herds in the Unit
ed Kingdom.