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Effects of fetal sex and sire and other factors on periparturient and postpartum performance of dairy cattle^*

Fabrice N. Quesnel^I; Charles J. Wilcox^II; Nancy A. Simerl^III; Arvind K. Sharma^IV; William W. Thatcher^II

^I6 Rue de Braque, Paris 75003, France
^IIDepartment of Dairy and Poultry Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-0920, U.S.A. Send correspondence to C.J.W.
^IIISherburne, NY 13640, U.S.A.
^IVMinistry of the Environment, 135 St. Clair Ave. W., Water Resource Branc, Toronto, ON, M4V 1K6, Canada

ABSTRACT

Lactational and reproductive performance of 1580 dairy cows of five dairy breeds were analyzed to estimate the magnitude of effects on 20 response variables of the sires of fetuses born to initiate lactation. Data were from a single herd. Represented were daughters of 410 sires; number of lactation records per response variable varied from 1994 to 3776. Data were analyzed by method of ordinary least square analyses of variance in models which included random effects of sire of cow-year-season, sire of fetus in sire of cow, and a set of fixed effects, age of cow, length of record, sex of calf, days pregnant, birth weight and gestation length, and presence or absence of metritis, dystocia and retained placenta. Sire of fetus effects were detected in 16 response variables, accounting for 0 to 20.2% of the phenotypic variance. These estimates represented upper limits of the magnitude of sire of fetus effects since they included interactions of such effects with other factors. Effects of sire of fetus were not detected for uterine horn of pregnancy, retained placenta, stillbirth or death of calf prior to 30 days postpartum. Results thus confirm that sire of fetus effects exist for postpartum productive and reproductive performance of dairy cattle.

Keywords: fetal sex; sire; periparturient; postpartum; dairy cattle.

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* Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Series No. R-04319.