Some Environmental Factors Causing First Calving Difficulties in Holstein Friesian Cattle

Abstract

Calving efficiency, an important target in cattle breeding, has been negatively affected by some environmental factors. Therefore, calving difficulty creates negative economic consequences. In this study, it was aimed to investigate the relationship between the first calving difficulty in Holstein Friesian (HF) cows in terms of management and origin factors. The material of the research consists of 1475 calving difficulty records from 5 different enterprises engaged in HF breeding, located in the Central Anatolia Region of Türkiye, covering the years from 2013 to 2019. The scoring system used to determine calving difficulty: normal without intervention (NB), normal with intervention (NBI), difficult/intervention with equipment (DB), and abnormal birth (AB). In the calving difficulty analysis, the management factor is classified as 1-2-3-4-5 and the origin of the cow is classified as 1 (foreign origin) and 2 (native origin). No findings were observed for NBI scores. Total NB, DB, and AB scores were 1250 (84.74%), 192 (13.01), and 33 (2.25%), respectively. Chi-square test was performed to test the differences among farms. Among the enterprises, the highest NB rate was observed in the 5th enterprise with 90.07%, the minimum DB rate was observed in the 5th enterprise with 8.45%, and the AB rate was at least 0.66% in the 1st enterprise. The difference between farms was significant for calving difficulty (P