How many preg check?

[Jessica06]

Just out of curiosity, how many on here routinely preg check their cattle? And if you don't, why not?

We do. Sometimes twice, if we're already running a later bred group through the chute for some reason. A lot of times we check AI's at 32-35 days, then check again when they're a couple months further along for confirmation before we kick them out for good.

 

[Ebenezer]

Ye we do. For two reasons. Drop opens when the market is good to feed less time. To market late breds in 2nd trimester as commercial replacements: Best price. All about marketing.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

We will be preg checking. We Only have 3 AI bred cows but we can't afford to feed cows that aren't pregnant through the winter.

 

[Ky hills]

We do, for culling purposes, and also to give an idea of when to expect each cow to calve, especially if it's winter calving.

 

[Rafter S]

I don't, other than first calf heifers. I don't have a squeeze chute at either pasture, so it wouldn't be a simple undertaking.

 

[bball]

I do. Cost too much to keep an open.

 

[talltimber]

I don't as yet. If I had an issue with open cows I suppose I would. I've not yet had an unknown open cow.

I did buy six a couple years ago and one aborted a few days after hauling them in pretty hot weather, but the signs were clear, and the fetus was found.

 

[JW IN VA]

I have mine checked if they are showing late.May start doing more.Caught a bad dose of lepto a few years back from not vaccinating correctly.Trying to stay ahead of that we discovered Neosporosis in one group so it was a good thing we were doing blood tests.This year, we had some open with neg. tests.Checked bull and found him to be sterile.Glad we caught it.

 

[Jessica06]

I guess this is probably true for a lot of Texas, but there are quite a few people here that keep bulls out year round and never preg check. I always wonder exactly how much money they are leaving on the table by keeping cows that only have a calf every other year, or what about if a bull goes bad? Our grass is so rank in the winter that feeding hay is the norm, especially if the majority of standing forage is Bahia or Bermuda, so there is always going to be some cost to keep an open cow. If someone only has 15 cows by the house, I guess that's one thing, but when it's 50+? That adds up.

I will say that most of the calls I get about investing in ultrasound are from people that have become dissatisfied with their vet, and don't want to blood test for one reason or another..

 

[True Grit Farms]

We preg check everything. From 30 to 60 days we pull blood, after that we glove them up and guess how far along they are. The more you know about your cattle the better off you'll be in the long run when it comes to making management decisions.

 

[Aaron]

Preg check both herds, fall in spring, spring in fall. Takes all the guess work out and with early knowledge gives me more marketing power.

 

[Nesikep]

I don't preg check, but I do keep a close eye on the herd and for the most part see when every cow is bred, and will watch out for re-breeds. If they're late and older I'll cull them, I've given a second chance to a couple younger ones.. all depends on the feed situation and how many critical other things I need to cull for (prolapse being a big one)

 

[cow pollinater]

Honestly, I'm only going to do a handful this year. Anything I'm not completely satisfied with is leaving this fall bred or not and will get checked at the sale. I'm going to pull my bulls shortly and then turn them back in at a later date to clean up anything that is still open and anything that doesn't calve this spring will get sold as a fall calving bred cow. The only one's I'll check are cows I don't want to roll into fall calving for whatever reason. There might be one or two that make it through open but I'd rather feed two open cows than spend that much time with my arm in a cow.

 

[TCRanch]

I don't, other than first calf heifers. I don't have a squeeze chute at either pasture, so it wouldn't be a simple undertaking.

We have a portable corral/chute so no excuse for not having them preg checked - and yet we rarely do. But we also don't AI and what started out as a tight, Spring calving has segued into the majority in the Spring, a couple stragglers during the summer & a small group in the Fall.

 

[skyhightree1]

Just out of curiosity, how many on here routinely preg check their cattle? And if you don't, why not?

We do. Sometimes twice, if we're already running a later bred group through the chute for some reason. A lot of times we check AI's at 32-35 days, then check again when they're a couple months further along for confirmation before we kick them out for good.

I preg check because i cant afford not to

 

[J&D Cattle]

If we've bought a young bull we do even though he'll have been semen tested. Generally we don't the cows as we see them often. We do preg check any heifers and first calf heifers. Stupid but I get pretty lazy about semen checking the bulls as well.

 

[creekdrive]

We don't usually preg check. To do the whole herd would be quite expensive and take a lot of time... In the last 9 years that I have been here there has only been 1 cow that we thought was bred that turned out to be open in the spring. Otherwise we have always identified the opens just by watching them. Occasionally we will preg check the odd cow if we suspect they might be open but aren't 100% sure. If we started having a bunch of open cows we would definitely consider preg checking, just don't feel the need to right now.

 

[skyhightree1]

We don't usually preg check. To do the whole herd would be quite expensive and take a lot of time... In the last 9 years that I have been here there has only been 1 cow that we thought was bred that turned out to be open in the spring. Otherwise we have always identified the opens just by watching them. Occasionally we will preg check the odd cow if we suspect they might be open but aren't 100% sure. If we started having a bunch of open cows we would definitely consider preg checking, just don't feel the need to right now.

Preg checking is insurance on your investment... Ask yourself how expensive it would be to not have a calf on multiple cows for 2 years.

 

[creekdrive]

Preg checking is insurance on your investment... Ask yourself how expensive it would be to not have a calf on multiple cows for 2 years.

Never had one go for 2 years. The one that we didn't catch was 5 or 6 years ago and saw the bull breeding her a day or two after we turned bulls out. She was gone the next time we made a trip to the auction.

We have figured out the numbers and we couldn't make it pencil out. I'm not sure what the cost would be to do the whole herd of 250+ cows but when we have done smaller groups (the last time we did some I think it was about 20 cows) the cost was $35/cow. Say if they gave you a rate of $20 for 250 head that would still be $5000. This past year we had 8 open cows out of 250 - 3 we sold in November (which is when they come off of pasture usually) the rest we waited till June, that way anything that lost it's calf etc could go on the same trailer load (the auction is over an hour away, so we try to make as a few trips as possible). The 5 open cows we kept over the winter didn't come close to costing what it would've to preg check the whole herd.

I'm not saying it's not a smart thing to do. Just in our situation we have never been able to make it pencil out.

 

[skyhightree1]

Preg checking is insurance on your investment... Ask yourself how expensive it would be to not have a calf on multiple cows for 2 years.

Never had one go for 2 years. The one that we didn't catch was 5 or 6 years ago and saw the bull breeding her a day or

I just noticed your location do you all not have blood preg check available there?