Suprise

[tlmcr]

Found this when I returned home from a trip. The vet called her open when we preg checked the fall herd, but said she was really too close to call. Nice bull calf out of my herd sire.

 

[texast]

Now thats a nice suprise!!

 

[iowahawkeyes]

When was she preg checked? It's nice to know your vet is as good as ours at preg checking. Honestly, is it that hard to tell if a cow is pregnant?

 

[tlmcr]

She was checked on March 2nd, so she would have been only about 45 days. We did it early so we could combine it with prebreeding vaccinations for the spring cows. I think he missed another one, she is looking pretty loose today.

My vet generally does a good job and to his credit he warned me they may be bred that it was pretty early to call. He got all the AI cows right and they were about 75 days.

 

[dun]

Honestly, is it that hard to tell if a cow is pregnant?

Apparently it is. The best vets will sometimes miss. It's not really a science, seems more of a voodoo black art kind of deal.

 

[Third Row]

so she would have been only about 45 days

Yes, at that stage it is pretty darn hard to call one bred and you are taking a risk in even trying.

You are basically just trying to determine if one of the horns is filled with fluid, there' no significant fetus to check for. If you do try felling for a fetus too aggressively, you stand a very large chance of aborting the pregnancy.

I don't know of too many vets that will call a female bred at 45-days, most wait for two-months. Your vet's accuracy at 75 days vs 45-days is a great example of why that's the case.

I'm not a vet but I personally won't even try to palpate at that stage due to concerns about causing an abortion. I use Biopryn if I want to know if a females is bred prior to 3-months.

 

[KNERSIE]

so she would have been only about 45 days

Yes, at that stage it is pretty darn hard to call one bred and you are taking a risk in even trying.

You are basically just trying to determine if one of the horns is filled with fluid, there' no significant fetus to check for. If you do try felling for a fetus too aggressively, you stand a very large chance of aborting the pregnancy.

I don't know of too many vets that will call a female bred at 45-days, most wait for two-months. Your vet's accuracy at 75 days vs 45-days is a great example of why that's the case.

I'm not a vet but I personally won't even try to palpate at that stage due to concerns about causing an abortion. I use Biopryn if I want to know if a females is bred prior to 3-months.

at 45 days its usually very easy to tell whether she is in calf, the period after that, but before the uterus slips over the pelvic rim is giving me a much harder time to tell for certain between a foetus or a full bladder.

 

[KMacGinley]

I agree with Knersie, 45 days is like falling off a log easy. I guess your vets didn't go to Purdue.

 

[Third Row]

ehh, different folks different strokes I guess. A large portoin of the sales around here won't even call them bred that short.

 

[holly heifer]

:heart: NOTHING PRETTIER THAN A HEALTHY HEREFORD
BABY! :clap:

 

[KNERSIE]

:heart: NOTHING PRETTIER THAN A HEALTHY HEREFORD
BABY! :clap:

I agree 100%

That cow isn't too ugly either ;-)

 

[THG]

Whats the genetics on that cow? Darn good looking cow.

THG

 

[tlmcr]

The cow is a Headmaster daughter out of MSU Dominette 25E a cow that has had 11 calves for Michigan State and is still going. We bought her at Fallfest in 2003 and now have 2 daughters and 2 granddaughters in our herd. She is a never miss cow. She probably deserves to be flushed and maybe we will later this fall.

 

[C HOLLAND]

Nice looking calf and the fact the vet missed the preg check is a good reason to use the blood test verses using a vet.

The results is close to 95% accurate and it can be done in the 30-45 day after the cows has been bred.

The cost is only around $4.00 per test and that includes supplies and express mailing.

OH yeah, Mama looks like she has the right tools for taking good care of the calf.

 

[OK Jeanne]

Pretty pair! And the cow looks like she has a decent
hindquarter. I agree re blood test for preg check. We
send ours to BioTracking lab in Idaho---2.25 per test.

 

[bigbull338]

nice looking calf.most vets wont call a cow bred till 60 or 90 days here.i wouldnt pin a vet down if i was preg checking at 45 days.if im going to preg check a cow its going tobe when i think shes 90 days.so it can pretty muchly be confirmed bred.

 

[rkm]

When we were in the dairy business it was very important to know as soon as possible if a cow was preg. We did preg checks monthly, a good vet could easly tell at 35 days.

 

[THG]

I like to check cows at 45 days. I think that is the best time to start checking for pregnant females.

THG

 

[milkmaid]

When we were in the dairy business it was very important to know as soon as possible if a cow was preg. We did preg checks monthly, a good vet could easly tell at 35 days.

Ditto. My vet will tell me at 32 days, and I even saw him call a heifer at 28 days once.

 

[Jake]

It's not that hard to determine pregnancy at 30-45 days a good vet or preg checker can almost tell you to the day as there is so much difference in development at this time. The easiest way to do it is to bump the uterus with your hand and if it bounces back to your hand she's bred. It just gets easier after 3 months up until about 6 months when you have to put expected birth weight and breed of calf into account.