Ultra sound

[cmf1]

Pretty cool tool.

I had to have the vet out to BSE and Trich test a young bull that is going to work in another herd shortly.
I used him for clean up and some heifers this year.
As long as the vet was coming out I gathered up All of them and had him Ultra sound them.
All but 1 took on AI and the bull got her. He bred the heifers as well.
I don't know how reliable the sexing is at 75ish days, and I'm sure it's got alot to do with the operator, but it's darned impressive to see the ultra sound in application.
Almost before he'd get his wrist in he said " yup" , then fish around for another few seconds and say the sex.
Much less invasive than manual palpation, not that that's a major deal, but I've always been a lttle concerned when they come up out of sync and are palp'ed at very early stage.
And the sexing thing is an added value if it's reliable.
All in all, I liked it.

Who on here use ultra sound regularly and for what reasons?
Do you find the sexing to be reliable and or helpful?
Cost effective fot what youget?

 

[Jessica06]

We bought our own last year, after doing a ton of research and seeing one in action. We'll never go back to straight palpating or blood testing. We can confidently call bred or open at 30 days, and did one this year that we AI'd at 29 days that was very obviously bred. We can check our heifers in July, which is just about the best time to sell an open heifer at the sale, and we just checked all of our cows last week. Both groups were about 35 days at the least, in a 90 day season. We don't do a whole lot of sexing, just because we really don't need to, and we're usually in a bit of a hurry to get everything done and all the cattle out of the pens, but it would definitely be useful for someone doing a lot of ET work, or selling bred heifers in groups.

We have about 150 breeding age females. We figure that it should pay for itself in just a few years, considering that the going rate for palpating and blood testing is about $5/head, with ultrasound considerably more than that. Figure in that you can do it yourself on your own time, that you can do it multiple times a year if you need to, that you'll be much more accurate than palpating AND blood testing, that you can sort breds and opens the day you do it, and that you'll be selling your opens in a better market and taking them off the feed bill earlier, it makes a lot of sense. The more cows you have, the more sense it makes! I know that the company we bought ours from offers a unit for less than 6K. For the record, we have the ReproScan XTC with the Reproarm. The Reproarm makes ultrasound even faster....I've seen videos of vets in Australia doing 200 cows an hour. Most pregnancies you can see just about instantly.

Very, very cool tool.

 

[cmf1]

I watched the video of the reproarm.
Sweet!
The only reason I had them ultrasounded was because he was here and with what I had to have done the extra charge worked out to about $10 a head. Not much more than manual palp with a definitive answer. The sexing was just an added wow while he was in there.
I don't trust my own palpating skills at early term enough to determine shipping or keeping a cow.
I can see where with your numbers it can pay for itself and then some.
Being small time it may be a luxury I can't afford in the future without things lining up like they did this time.
Sure is good knowing what caught AI, what caught clean up, no opens, maybe sexed.
Satisfaction of not wondering and guessing has got some value to it.
Just got to decide how much.

 

[WalnutCrest]

We sex the embryos in the recips so we know which recips are ours and which are our buyers. We also bought a bred cow last year, in large part because she was confirmed carrying a heifer. If the calf would have been a bull, we probably wouldn't have been a buyer.

 

[bmoore87]

We bought our own last year, after doing a ton of research and seeing one in action. We'll never go back to straight palpating or blood testing

Ricebelt Rancher if i can ask what brand/ model and price. Also was it easy to learn I have been looking at getting one to.

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

We used to ultrasound everything, and sex all embryo calves at around 70 days. Our vet was 100% correct the first two years, and we really liked that. As we got more and more embryos in, his accuracy went down. Not sure why, but when we got three embryos calves in a row that he called heifers (which we want) and ended up being bulls, it was so very disappointing. So we stopped sexing. We figured it was better not knowing and being happy when we got a heifer than thinking it was a heifer and finding a bull instead. This fall will be our first round with no ultrasounds. We did not even preg check the cows, since we do not run a bull and I know when they stuck to AI or the embryo we put in. If the vet is here at the right time, we would check ones we might be curious about, but no longer go out of our way to schedule him out just to ultrasound the cows.

 

[cmf1]

If the vet is here at the right time, we would check ones we might be curious about, but no longer go out of our way to schedule him out just to ultrasound the cows.

That's what I'm thinking now.
With Ricebelt's numbers I can see it being cost effective. With mine, I might try to arrange it around herd health, bangs, etc.

 

[Craig]

Excellent tool, have it done every year. Huge advantage knowing if a cow is carrying twins! I also like to know the sex of the calves in my registered cows. Only costs 3-5 dollars per head plus the farm call, usually 30-40 bucks, depending on which vet I use.

 

[cmf1]

Excellent tool indeed.
My cost is about twice or more what yours is so I have pencil out the value of it to me.
No doubt it is a great tool to have available though.

 

[midtncattle]

I need a neighbor with one of those!!

 

[bpwagner115]

Not to hi-jack the thread, but how long bred can ultrasound still be done on virgin heifers? Ours are at 110 days if they concieved on timed a.i. and I'm trying to talk dad into getting them ultrasounded vs palped. Not interested in sexing, just figuring which conceived A.I. so we can get them in the barn in advance.

 

[Jessica06]

30 days until calving. Timing is only important if you want to sex it or age it accurately. 120 days tops for aging. After that, the calf usually drops out of view of my Reproarm, but fluid and cotyledons are still easily visible. You can actually age somewhat by measuring cotyledons, but it's not very accurate since there can be such a variation in sizes.

 

[Aaron]

Have the vet out every year with hers. Do it at 45 days bred on the spring cows, and about 5 months on the fall cows. I love it. A lot faster than palpating and will save her arm in the long term.

 

[cmf1]

BP,
If your AI cows are 110 days, that would put you live covers at about 92 days or less.
The vet that I used would have been pretty high percentage on judging between the two at that point in talking with him.

 

[bpwagner115]

Thanks for the help, we will be talking with our vet on Sunday after church and hopefully he can get over here sometime soon. I think he said price difference goes from $3 to $5 per head, but that seems more than worth it.