Environmental factors and calving management practices that affect neonatal mortality in the beef calf

This article reviews the relationship of environmental and calving management factors and the occurrence of neonatal mortality. The importance of these factors, considered individually or in combinations, has been the subject of a limited number of scientific investigations. As a consequence, some recommendations are based on clinical impression and reasoning rather than the results of carefully controlled field studies. Significant costs are incurred by cow/calf operators in the implementation of many of these ideas. Hopefully, they are all appropriate and useful, but more research should be conducted in this area. There is a need to learn more about environmental causes of neonatal mortality, including individual effects, the effect of various combinations of these factors, and the relative magnitude of the effect of both individual factors and various combinations of them.