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Environmental Effects On Neonatal Mortality Of Beef Calves, S. M. Azzam, J. E. Kinder, Merlyn K. Nielsen, L. A. Werth, K. E. Gregory, Larry V. Cundiff, R. M. Koch

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

Calving records from 1969 to 1989 from the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center were used to investigate how climatic conditions, in addition to dystocia, age of dam, size of calf, and sex affect calf survival from birth to 1 wk of age. Data were analyzed separately for cows calving with (n = 11,094) or without (n = 72,187) dystocia. Neonatal mortality was described by a logit model and parameters were estimated by maximum-likelihood procedures. Calves born to cows with dystocia were five times as likely to die neonatally than calves born without assistance. Of all calves that …