Make the Choice for Easier Calvings

By: Amy te Plate-Church, Market Development Manager, Genex

The benefit of calving ease and better transition is becoming real as producers freshen heifers bred with GenChoice^TM. Due to the higher percent of heifer calves, fewer difficulties and stillbirths are expected with pregnancies to GenChoice compared to conventional semen. These easier calvings lead to healthier cows which produce more in their first lactation and generally breed back more quickly.

When a Holstein heifer has a bull calf, producers rate the calving as difficult twice as often as when a heifer freshens with a heifer. Stillbirths - calves born dead or dying within 48 hours - are also reported more often when bull calves are born.

Table 1. Effect of Calf Gender on Calving¹ 

What does this mean for an individual herd? We estimate expected calving difficulties for a 500-cow herd which breeds all virgin heifers, first service to conventional semen (Scenario 1) or GenChoice (Scenario 2). We expect difficult births cut in half when GenChoice is used. We'd also expect a 33 percent decrease in stillbirths.

Stillbirths are more frequent - generally eight to 10 percent of all calvings. Their cost is easy to figure - number of dead calves times their value if born alive. Plus, the dam may be lost as well. Heifers that survive the difficult calving are likely to get off to a slow start, milk less, and have more health and breeding problems.

According to published research², up to $383 in expenses could be tallied when a heifer calves with extreme difficulty. That could be a $1,915 savings in the scenario here with five fewer difficulties.

Consider these statistics:

• 19 percent of all first calvings require assistance, compared to 6.8 percent of later calvings.
• Difficult births reduce milk by 700 pounds for average 305-day lactation.
• Days open is extended by 20 days, on average, after a difficult birth.

In sire evaluations, USDA estimates the following costs for each calving recorded as "considerable force needed" or "extreme difficulty" (four and five respectively on a five-point scale).

• $100 loss in milk production per difficult birth
• $75 reproductive costs
• $70 for farm labor and veterinary charges

Certainly, fewer difficult births, fewer stillbirths and better transition in that first lactation can add to the bottom line.

-Rick Rausch, Rausch Farms, Athens, Wis.

Calvings from sexed semen were reported as difficult half as often as those from conventional semen, when evaluating Dairy Comp 305 records from the 325 first lactation cows in the herd.

¹USDA-AIPL ²Dematawewa and Berger (1997 Journal of Dairy Science 80:754).