Abstract The objective of this study was to characterize calvings with low and high difficulty based on the productive and reproductive performance of dairy cows. Calvings were grouped in no calving assistance, calving with low assistance, and calving with high assistance. The original data set comprised 1,902 calving records obtained from a large dairy farm in Southeast Brazil. Factor analysis was applied using the SAS® Studio 3.8 statistical program through the factor procedure, considering the Multivariate Analysis category. Milk fat (0.92–0.79) and total solids (0.91–0.80) were strongly correlated with Factor 1. Calving interval (0.87– 0.68) and the number of AI (artificial inseminations) per conception (0.87–0.71) showed high correlations with Factor 2. Milk yield (0.84–0.76) and accumulated milk yield (0.84–0.77) were strongly correlated with Factor 3. Based on the results, we conclude that the three calving scenarios were characterized by well-defined and independent factors. Cows which required a high assistance at calving showed a lower variance explained by the model for milk fat and total solids contents, calving interval, and the number of AIs per conception.