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Cattle Boards
Breeding / Calving Issues
How accurate should I expect ultrasound to be?
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<blockquote data-quote="Jessica06" data-source="post: 1166565" data-attributes="member: 5612"><p>The tricky part about using the probe is that you have to be really careful not to rupture the rectal wall when you are looking for the really deep ones. If I had one that I couldn't tell on, I would take the probe out and palpate. On the really late bred ones, sometimes the calf's head will be so tight against the uterus and take up so much room, that it almost looks like an open because you can't see any fluid. However, you can usually tell that something doesn't look quite right, which is the signal to palpate her instead.</p><p></p><p>To me, 90% on ultrasound is the absolute minimum. If I find out that I miss even one, I feel pretty rotten. If I were hiring someone to do it, I would expect 95% or better, though most should be closer to 100% if they are pretty experienced. We haven't done a whole lot, but are pretty close to 100%. If I had a pretty important cow show open, I would definitely take more time on her, and even blood test if I had to, to be absolutely certain. </p><p></p><p>As far as aging, if the cows are 120 days or less I would expect the aging to be off by no more than 10-15 days. 30 days is too much. Now if they are over 120, it gets difficult because a lot of the time the head has dropped too far, or grown too large to measure and it's hard to find any other reliable landmarks. </p><p></p><p>We are starting to calve out our first big group to age, and so far both of the cows are within a week of their due date, all natural service. The rest look about like they should! </p><p></p><p>On a side note, we played around with ultrasounding in my sheep and goat class in college, and as far as management tools go I don't think you could find a more useful one.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jessica06, post: 1166565, member: 5612"] The tricky part about using the probe is that you have to be really careful not to rupture the rectal wall when you are looking for the really deep ones. If I had one that I couldn't tell on, I would take the probe out and palpate. On the really late bred ones, sometimes the calf's head will be so tight against the uterus and take up so much room, that it almost looks like an open because you can't see any fluid. However, you can usually tell that something doesn't look quite right, which is the signal to palpate her instead. To me, 90% on ultrasound is the absolute minimum. If I find out that I miss even one, I feel pretty rotten. If I were hiring someone to do it, I would expect 95% or better, though most should be closer to 100% if they are pretty experienced. We haven't done a whole lot, but are pretty close to 100%. If I had a pretty important cow show open, I would definitely take more time on her, and even blood test if I had to, to be absolutely certain. As far as aging, if the cows are 120 days or less I would expect the aging to be off by no more than 10-15 days. 30 days is too much. Now if they are over 120, it gets difficult because a lot of the time the head has dropped too far, or grown too large to measure and it's hard to find any other reliable landmarks. We are starting to calve out our first big group to age, and so far both of the cows are within a week of their due date, all natural service. The rest look about like they should! On a side note, we played around with ultrasounding in my sheep and goat class in college, and as far as management tools go I don't think you could find a more useful one. [/QUOTE]
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How accurate should I expect ultrasound to be?
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