The incidence of difficult calvings in the beef cattle in the Slovak Republic

Calving difficulty is one of important economic traits in beef production. In the Slovak Republic calving difficulty in beef cattle is recorded on the regular basis, however, these data have not been used so far in decision making. The aim of this study was to get the first insight into the data. Data on 288 346 calvings in 5 major Slovak populations (Charolais, Limousine, Slovak Simmental, Pinzgau, Beef Simmental) during the period 1990-2017 were exploited. The primary analyses showed that there exist differences in the incidence of the difficult calvings according to the breed of the dam. The lowest rate of assisted calvings was observed in Limousine breed. Lower incidence was observed when calvings of crossbred matings were considered. Only slight associations of difficult calvings with sex of calves, parity and season of calvings were observed. Slightly higher rates of assisted calvings were observed in the group of heifers and births of males.