randiliana
Well-known member
Just got my Calving issue of the 'Canadian Cattlemen' magazine. There is a very good article in there about conformation and calving. I won't go into it all, cause it is rather long, but remembering the thread about high tailheads, I thought this excerpt would shed some light. Article is by Heather Smith Thomas.
"Calving ease conformation is very important. Try to select females with wide pinbones, with a lot of length from hooks to pins, and a lot of width between the hook bones. This gives a wider pelvis with more room for calving and generally creates a tipped-down pelvis, rather than level or tipped up. A tipped-up pelvis makes for more calving problems since the calf must come up and over the pelvic brim in an arc.
The full-term calf and heavy uterus is hanging down in the abdomen, resting on the abdominal floor. As the calf is pushed up and over ther brim of the pelvis during labour, his front feet tend to hit the top of the birth canal if the pelvis is tipped up (as it generally is in a cow with a high tailhead), rather than making a smooth arc. If the calf's feet are jamming into the the top of the pelvis or birth canal each time she strains, this may cause the cow enough discomfort that she will put off calving, and the delay in calving may result ina dead calf if the placenta eventually starts to detach."
Another excerpt
" Montana veterinarian Ron Skinner has raised purebred Angus and Saler cattle for more than 40 years and has some definite opinions on what makes a good cow. " A lot of high marbling cattle, and some of the popular pedigrees just make me shudder when I look at the back end of those cows (or bulls). The saler cattle, when they originally came over here from France, had a rump on them like a Quarter Horse, with a very sloped rear end. They were round rumped, with a low tailhead - below the line of their back. People hated the looks of that be cause it didn't fit hthe show ring. But those cows could stand there and squirt out a calf with no problems. American breeders started changing them to fit what the American purebred breeders wanted to look at, and what would sell, and the French people just shook their heads" says Skinner.
"Too many people who are showing cattle today have it in their minds that a cow has to have a high tail head (tipped up pelvis) as a sign of femininity, but this too me is a sighn of future calving problems", he says."
I found this article, to be very helpful and informative, but too long for me to copy into here ;-)
"Calving ease conformation is very important. Try to select females with wide pinbones, with a lot of length from hooks to pins, and a lot of width between the hook bones. This gives a wider pelvis with more room for calving and generally creates a tipped-down pelvis, rather than level or tipped up. A tipped-up pelvis makes for more calving problems since the calf must come up and over the pelvic brim in an arc.
The full-term calf and heavy uterus is hanging down in the abdomen, resting on the abdominal floor. As the calf is pushed up and over ther brim of the pelvis during labour, his front feet tend to hit the top of the birth canal if the pelvis is tipped up (as it generally is in a cow with a high tailhead), rather than making a smooth arc. If the calf's feet are jamming into the the top of the pelvis or birth canal each time she strains, this may cause the cow enough discomfort that she will put off calving, and the delay in calving may result ina dead calf if the placenta eventually starts to detach."
Another excerpt
" Montana veterinarian Ron Skinner has raised purebred Angus and Saler cattle for more than 40 years and has some definite opinions on what makes a good cow. " A lot of high marbling cattle, and some of the popular pedigrees just make me shudder when I look at the back end of those cows (or bulls). The saler cattle, when they originally came over here from France, had a rump on them like a Quarter Horse, with a very sloped rear end. They were round rumped, with a low tailhead - below the line of their back. People hated the looks of that be cause it didn't fit hthe show ring. But those cows could stand there and squirt out a calf with no problems. American breeders started changing them to fit what the American purebred breeders wanted to look at, and what would sell, and the French people just shook their heads" says Skinner.
"Too many people who are showing cattle today have it in their minds that a cow has to have a high tail head (tipped up pelvis) as a sign of femininity, but this too me is a sighn of future calving problems", he says."
I found this article, to be very helpful and informative, but too long for me to copy into here ;-)
