Cost of Calving Difficulties

摘要

The cost of calving a cow will depend on how difficult the calving is. The standard way of assessing calving ease/difficulty is shown in the following table. For example this is the system which is used to assess ease of calving in pedigree herds to help develop EBVs. The first impact of calving a cow is on the farm labour, in table 2 charged at just E10 per hour. However, a bigger impact on farm labour is the subsequent time taken feeding and mucking out cows and calves in individual pens as they recover from the calving. Finally, for extreme calving difficulties there will also be veterinary fees. Table 2 shows suggested costs for the various levels of calving difficulty.