Questions

[tnwalkingred]

All,

I have a few cows that I plan on getting AI bred this fall. I know that 3 of them are open as they had calves this year and I don't own a bull. One had a calf this spring and the other two calved within the last two months. I also have one cow that was AI bred this spring but the vet checked her and said she was not not bred. I assume the vet is correct but I have not seen her in heat and she keeps getting bigger and bigger. I also have two cows that I bought a few months ago that had calves on their side and had been in with a bull since they calved. I have not seen them in heat either but I can't be sure they are bred.

My first question is this. On the 3 that I know are open when should I get them bred? Should I wait until the one who calved the most recent is ready to breed again(60 days) or should I got ahead and breed the other two now? I take them to another farm to get them bred and he will AI them on natural heat. I've also thought putting heat patches or chaulk on them to see if I can catch them in heat and then take them to him on the following cycle.

I tried palpating the other 3 today to see if I could tell they were bred or not but to be honest I had no idea what I was feeling. I need to get them pregnancy checked and I can always have my vet do it but I want to be more self sufficient. Should I pull blood on them and get it sent off for testing? If so how do I draw it and how does the testing process work?

My goal is to be able to do everything I can myself and once I attend an AI course I will no longer have to rely on anyone else as it relates to my breeding program. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

KW

 

[kdhansen]

This site here will explain the BioPryn blood test for pregnancy. Very informative, explains everything very well. As far as collecting the blood, it's really pretty easy (after the first time). Biggest thing I noticed is the less I raise the tail up to get under it (try to keep it no higher than parallel to the ground), the quieter they stand. Mostly just feel for the indentation, works pretty slick. http://www.biotracking.com

 

[boondocks]

All,

I have a few cows that I plan on getting AI bred this fall. I know that 3 of them are open as they had calves this year and I don't own a bull. One had a calf this spring and the other two calved within the last two months. I also have one cow that was AI bred this spring but the vet checked her and said she was not not bred. I assume the vet is correct but I have not seen her in heat and she keeps getting bigger and bigger. I also have two cows that I bought a few months ago that had calves on their side and had been in with a bull since they calved. I have not seen them in heat either but I can't be sure they are bred.

My first question is this. On the 3 that I know are open when should I get them bred? Should I wait until the one who calved the most recent is ready to breed again(60 days) or should I got ahead and breed the other two now? I take them to another farm to get them bred and he will AI them on natural heat. I've also thought putting heat patches or chaulk on them to see if I can catch them in heat and then take them to him on the following cycle.

I tried palpating the other 3 today to see if I could tell they were bred or not but to be honest I had no idea what I was feeling. I need to get them pregnancy checked and I can always have my vet do it but I want to be more self sufficient. Should I pull blood on them and get it sent off for testing? If so how do I draw it and how does the testing process work?

My goal is to be able to do everything I can myself and once I attend an AI course I will no longer have to rely on anyone else as it relates to my breeding program. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

KW

Howdy,
Found this thread tonight while searching for any threads on the blood test for pregnancy. We have one cow we had to re-AI about 2 mos. ago. The rest were confirmed pregnant by vet; we'd like to make sure this one took on the second try, but we're thinking the blood test may be more cost effective than having vet out to palpate one cow. Any advice (from the original poster or anyone else) on BioPRYN blood test for pregnancy? thanks!

 

[slick4591]

I use BioPRYN and like it because it is less expensive than a vet call or loading her up and hauling. Since you know when yours was bred you won't have the problem of not knowing how far along she is. The blood test will only confirm or deny pregnancy with a small window of a false positive.

 

[Dega Moo]

Boondocks,
We use BioPRYN two ways. If we are palping and one is called open, we pull blood. A few years ago I discovered that better than 10% of the cows we were culling for being open, weren't. Very cheap follow up cost compared to the cost of culling the girl. We will sometimes forgo palp entirely and just use the blood test at 30 to 35 days especially after AI and palp 45 to 60 days after pulling cleanup bulls.

Your vet is a valuable asset to your operation but still shouldn't charge more than a few bucks to palp a cow. Most of your cost will be in paying for travel time. If you have other work for the vet to do you could combine those efforts and reduce some of the overall costs. You might want to discuss all this with your vet. I think small operations need a good vet relationship even more than the large operations.

If you are going to go with the blood test, make sure and get everything ready - including shipping containers and such, before you pull the blood.

 

[boondocks]

Boondocks,
We use BioPRYN two ways. If we are palping and one is called open, we pull blood. A few years ago I discovered that better than 10% of the cows we were culling for being open, weren't. Very cheap follow up cost compared to the cost of culling the girl. We will sometimes forgo palp entirely and just use the blood test at 30 to 35 days especially after AI and palp 45 to 60 days after pulling cleanup bulls.

Your vet is a valuable asset to your operation but still shouldn't charge more than a few bucks to palp a cow. Most of your cost will be in paying for travel time. If you have other work for the vet to do you could combine those efforts and reduce some of the overall costs. You might want to discuss all this with your vet. I think small operations need a good vet relationship even more than the large operations.

If you are going to go with the blood test, make sure and get everything ready - including shipping containers and such, before you pull the blood.

Thanks for the replies and info, Slick and Dega. I think we will order the BioPRYN supplies and give it a whirl. I wholeheartedly agree, it's necessary to have a good relationship with your vet, and we do. In the past few months we have had her out to do all our vaccines, advise on a bad pinkeye, insert CIDRS, and do preg checks. She is great. (We also take our doggy to her). But I think we'd like to learn how to do the blood test, as we're trying to always increase our knowledge/skills. I like the idea of doing blood checks as a back-up when a cow is called open. May try that next time around! Question, though: if you're doing AI and a cow is then called open, what we did last time was to re-CIDR while she was still in the chute. I would assume, though, that if you're waiting on a blood test to confirm open, you would not want to re-CIDR then (assume hormones could cause her to abort or otherwise not be good, plus a waste of a CIDR)...

 

[Dega Moo]

Boondocks,

We almost always do synch and timed AI (TAI) and put cleanup bulls in about ten days after the AI. The BioPryn test, as long as we don't wait more than 37 days or so should tell us which of the girls took the AI. We want to develop our heifers out of those AI sires whenever possible and this gives us useful info. We will also generally be able to tell if an AI positive slipped and was picked up by the cleanup bull at a later point.

So no we don't re-cidr.

 

[bird dog]

You might want to buy some 3ML syringes if this is your first time to blood test. They are somewhat easier for me to draw the blood with and then transfer it to the vacutainer. If you can't get the blood shipped within a day or two just put it in the refrigerator until you are ready.