In an effort to reduce calving difficulties in heifers I have been performing pelvic measurements on one of our herds for the last 4 years. This has resulted that this year 120 heifers calved with only 2 needed a gentle (manual) pull while all other heifers delivered a calf themselves unaided.
For this year 150 heifers were selected to go to the bull. These animals were selected on weight to reach 400kg at 15 months of age. This is based on 60% of mature cow weight of 650kg. Out of the 150 heifers put up for pelvic measuring 1 turned out to be a Free-martin and 26 failed to reach the required pelvic area of 140cm². Although this strikes as a large number, the client was happy not to breed from these as he is so pleased in the improvement in calving ease. There were a handful of animals with a pelvic area of less than 100cm². All these animals had reached a certain minimum weight and could not be differentiated from those with an adequate pelvic size.
Please speak with one of the vets if you like to find out more about pelvic measuring.
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