Target labour towards male calves post calving
Scarce labour resources may most usefully be targeted towards male calves, post calving. That was the conclusion of a study, recently completed at the SAC.
“Even where cows apparently required no assistance at calving and despite little difference in calf body weight between sexes, the duration of the calving process was longer for male calves compared to females and they also took longer to stand and suck than female calves,” the SAC’s Jimmy Hyslop told delegates at the British Society of Animal Science annual conference.
“As financial pressures on UK beef farms increase, each beef industry stockman will be expected to look after more animals. And, consequently, labour availability around calving will be reduced in future years. In order to enable limited human assistance to be targeted towards those cows and calves that need it, a sound understanding of the time course of the natural calving process is needed. The objective of this study was to detail the time dynamics of the major externally visible calving events in unassisted spring calving suckler cows housed in a straw bedded yard, typical of UK practice,” he said, explaining the rational behind the work.
The entire duration of the calving process in 23 multiparous spring calving suckler cows was recorded using a multiplex digital camera system and the continuous images were stored for subsequent processing by a human operator. Suckler cow breed types were either Aberdeen Angus cross Limousin or Limousin cross Aberdeen Angus, according to a two-breed rotational cross breeding programme within the SAC suckler herd.
“And we found that the time taken for male calves to stand post calving and to suck once they had stood was significantly longer than for female calves,” said Dr Hyslop. “And the total time duration of the entire calving process from first sight of the water bag to calves sucking was also significantly longer for male compared to female calves,” he added.
Presented to the British Society of Animal Science Annual Meeting, March 31 to April 2, 2008, Scarborough, UK.
Full details: Hyslop JJ, Ross DW, Bell M and Dwyer C: “Observations on the time course of calving events in unassisted multiparous spring calving suckler cows housed in a straw bedded yard.”
summary (pdf)
For further information visit http://www.bsas.org.uk/Publications/Annual_Conference_Proceedings/or contact BSAS on 0131 4 45 4508 or bsas@sac.ac.uk
