Cool article on ultrasounds

[Brandonm2]

http://cattletoday.com/archive/2006/March/CT445.shtml

I knew we could ultrasound cows for pregnancy, I did not know though that they could distinguish between living and dead fetuses and detect pregnancy at 20 days. Maybe I am missing something, but IF you could conclusively identify the open cows 20-32 days after a timed AI you would be able to follow that with a second timed AI of the open cows. IF you were able to settle ~65% of the cows on that first service and then identify that 35% that were open and settle 60% of them on the followup service the cleanup bull wouldn't have too much work to do.

 

[W.B.]

I am pretty sure for you to have accuracy at that early of stage that you have to have the exact breeding date and then its a little tricky.

Dr. Ralph Miller of Livingston MT. pretty much was the pioneer on this area told me it difficult to tell a less than 30 day old fetus if you don't have the breeding date the uterus looks about the same in a female that is in heat as one that is bred less than 30 days bred.

 

[Brandonm2]

Thats why I said: "after a timed AI". IF you bred all the cows on the same day, you should have recorded the breeding date somewhere. This would obviously have less application for a natural breeding season other than allowing you to check sooner after the bulls were pulled.