Genetics of calving performance

Abstract

Calving performance is a significant contributor to the profitability of cattle production systems whilst also becoming an increasingly important welfare issue in recent years. Calving performance includes both dystocia and perinatal mortality. Dystocia, commonly known as calving difficulty is defined as a prolonged or difficult parturition whereas perinatal mortality is defined as calf mortality shortly before, during or shortly after parturition. This thesis describes four separate bodies of work that were carried out to understand the genetic variation focusing on dystocia and perinatal mortality.