One of the topics discussed at the beef meeting this past month was pelvic measurements in heifers. Here is a little reminder on how it is done and on how valuable it can be.
If you are reading this and if you have cattle, then you probably have, at some point, had problems calving a heifer because she wasn’t big enough. Whether you had to ring us for assistance or you were able to do it yourself, you’d be thinking about preventing it from happening again.
Heifer pelvic measuring is a good way to reduce the risk of breeding from heifers that have inadequate pelvic size or shape, by making sure we are only breeding from heifers who will have the best chance of calving with ease.
This is done by measuring the width and the height of the pelvic bones by inserting a rice pelvimeter rectally. These measurements will then be multiplied and we will have a pelvic area in cm2.
We can then work with these measurements from all your heifers and make decisions on which ones we can or not breed from.
Because pelvic size is a heritable characteristic, if we start breeding from heifers with favourable pelvic sizes then it’s likely their daughters will have higher pelvic areas as well.
Since this can be done anytime from 13 to 24 months of age, you can do it while doing routine PDs or while testing your bull in preparation for the next breeding season.
Duarte
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