Distribution of sexes in cattle

Data were obtained from records of 1,046 Holstein dams included in the dairy herd at Cornell University during the years 1940 through 1977. Sex by order of parity was determined for the offspring of each dam. The overall sex ratio for 4,245 single parities was 52.74 percent males. Sex ratios for different parities were relatively consistent. Within progenies of the dams, there was no consistent evidence of association between the sexes of successive and various nonsuccessive calves. Frequencies of combinations of sexes in the different sizes of offspring occurred as expected.