How pelvic scoring has helped improve suckler herd health

A decision to keep a heifer that looked “the best of the bunch”, despite her borderline pelvic score, taught Stuart Gowling a valuable lesson. The heifer went on to need a caesarean section.

As a result, he now selects herd replacements only from heifers that pass the annual pelvic scoring test at his Leicestershire farm.

See also: Causes of calving caesareans and how to reduce interventions

Farm facts

Park Farm, Swinford, Leicestershire

Stuart Gowling © MAG/Judith Tooth

• 121ha permanent pasture and silage leys and 40ha cereals, across two sites, plus 73ha rented grass
• 60 spring-calving and 40 autumn-calving suckler cows
• Simmental and Simmental cross Limousins put to Limousin and Hereford bulls
• Herd vaccinated for bovine viral diarrhoea
• Additional 100-150 store cattle finished each year
• Lambing 500 sheep – 300 in February and 200 in April, all indoors
• All finished cattle and lambs supplied to local butcher Joseph Morris; cull cows sold to ABP

A pelvic score is calculated by measuring the pelvis at the widest and deepest points to give a value in cubic centimetres.

This is then checked against a scale, which varies according to breed (native or continental) and age – about 12 months for Stuart’s heifers, carried out as part of a reproductive health check.

“It was the first year we did the scoring, in August 2017, on eight Simmental-cross heifers,” says Stuart, who runs a 100-cow herd at Park Farm, Swinford, with his father, Graeme, 79.

“This heifer was on the verge of being too small, but I wanted to keep it.”

The heifer was put to a Limousin bull, and come calving time, he had to assist.

“The calf was backwards, which didn’t help. I’ve got a calving box, a proper yoke, everything, and I’m not afraid to have a go.

“But I couldn’t get it out, and the vet had to do a caesarean section at 2am.

“I remember it well as I was due to get up at 5am to go to Carlisle market, and I didn’t get to bed until 4am.”

Prevalence of caesarean sections

Stuart’s vet, Mel Julian, of Cross Counties Farm Vets, helped carry out an audit for VetPartners of more than 600 caesarean sections on farms across the UK since 2021.

Mel Julian © MAG/Judith Tooth

This revealed that 77% took place in suckler herds, and in 62% of cases, the procedure was needed because the calf was too big for the pelvis of the cow or heifer.

Records for Stuart’s herd show the number of caesarean sections carried out since 2010.

In the years up to 2019, there were 14 caesarean sections, of which 11 were on heifers carrying a calf that was too big.

Since then, pelvic scoring has been routine, and there has been just one resulting from an oversized calf (another was needed for a twisted uterus; two more for malpresentations).

The hardest part, says Stuart, is making – and timing – the decision to call the vet when a calving does run into problems.

Early intervention leads to better outcomes than “pulling for ages and then calling the vet”, Mel points out.

“Any calving intervention has an impact on the cow and the calf and increases the risk of calf mortality, whether that be immediately or down the line,” she adds.

Impact of pelvic scoring

Mel points out that pelvic scoring is not the only consideration when selecting which heifers to breed from, rather it is another tool in the box.

Yet it is an effective one: further data analysis of Stuart’s herd shows that he has reduced the incidence of poor pelvic scores from 33% in 2018 to 0% in 2025 (see table above).

“Stuart is breeding heifers with better scores, and this is being carried into the herd,” says Mel.

“And now, he has more heifers to pick from for breeding so he can be more selective, rather than being limited to those with a good pelvic score.” 

Stuart’s own records reveal that of 41 calves born in autumn 2024, three needed assisting.

These were all out of heifers: one was breech, while the other two were big bull calves.

© MAG/Judith Tooth

On checking his records, he found these calves had been sired by his black Limousin stock bull.

While this bull’s progeny tend to be placid and grow well, he says, these latest figures have persuaded him to try a Hereford bull on the heifers instead.

As he already runs heifers and first-time calvers as a separate group, along with a few older cows, this has been straightforward to implement.

© MAG/Judith Tooth

Herd management has also been improved by tightening both calving blocks: spring calving takes place indoors from 1 March to 1 June; autumn calving runs for two months from 1 September, when cows calve outdoors but have free access to a shed.

“I used to leave the bull in for longer, but the calving period would drag on, and I’d get the odd heifer in-calf very early.

“A tighter block is better for ease of management – and profitability,” he says, adding that he has also culled hard for lameness in recent years to improve herd health and longevity.

Breeding decisions

With 24 potential candidates in the field this summer, Stuart says he will soon go through his calving records to help him decide which are best suited for herd replacements.

Any displaying a bad temperament will not make the grade.

Even with a well-equipped calving box, he says it is not worth the risk, especially as he has to work alone at night.

“I’m picking the cream – I’m looking for good feet, a good square-bodied, milky cow with good mothering ability,” he says.

He admits that rather than noting information such as lameness incidence on paper, he relies on memory, but says the calving records act as a prompt to remind him which animals have had issues.

While he knows his herd inside out, Mel is encouraging him to log his observations – and include more detail – to help him make further improvements in herd health.

Calving score

“We’ve discussed adding a calving score to the records,” says Mel.

She recommends a simple scoring system:

• 1 = No assistance
• 2 = Some assistance but no calving aid used
• 3 = Aid such as calving jack used by the farmer
• 4 = Vet called out
• 5 = Surgical intervention.

“By recording that data, we can look for trends.

“We could also look in more detail at the bulls, and if Stuart was to bring back information from any potential bull purchases – especially data on maternal calving ease and direct calving ease – we could combine that with his visual assessment and his breeding aims and look at his options,” she says.