Vet's preg check accuracy?

[TexasBred]

Our vet is usually within 2 weeks. If he calls an AI too early - it's a bull calf and on time its almost always a heifer. He gives me 2 week intervals and and we make sure bull has been out for at least 8 weeks.
Valerie
He does work at several sale barns and dairies.

Wow the guy is good if he can call them that close "blindly" not having access to any of your breeding info. Hang on to him. ;-)

 

[TexasBred]

early on I got in the habit of giving the vet the exact number of days that I thought the cow ought to be bred and why I thought that date

example 42 days AI service
example 74 days bull service observed
example 63 days cow in heat svc not observed but bull in field

helps the vet calibrate his arm as well to check a known breeding date.

Jim that is excellent info. As you said, helps him eliminate what you know is not there and focus on the right area and you get accurate info as well.

 

[vclavin]

Our vet is usually within 2 weeks. If he calls an AI too early - it's a bull calf and on time its almost always a heifer. He gives me 2 week intervals and and we make sure bull has been out for at least 8 weeks.
Valerie
He does work at several sale barns and dairies.

Wow the guy is good if he can call them that close "blindly" not having access to any of your breeding info. Hang on to him. ;-)

The University at Columbia, Mo tried to get him to work on the cattle genome, but he said he wanted to work in the field instead. State vet highly recommended him. He's good!!
Valerie

 

[cow pollinater]

All of the vets that I work with on a regular basis can blindly call a calf within a two day range. Every one of them is also capable of finding a thirty day calf but none of them will tell you that they can find a thirty day calf accurately every time. I'm also really good at ignoring the occassional string that comes out of an "open" cow and the puss discharge from the occasional "pregnant" cow.
For those of you who don't arm your own cows, you'd be amazed at how easy it is to be wrong inside of a cow. :nod: Big mistakes all the time are a real problem and might be a good reason to find a new vet but a missed small pregnancy every now and then from a bull breeding with no information just comes with the territory.
I got my A$$ chewed thoroughly a few days ago for breeding a cow with a ninety day calf and I've been breeding a hundred head a day for the last ten years so I do know what a pregnant cow feels like. She rode like a hot cow and felt fine so I bred her and never looked at my records(why would I look, she's in heat and feels good) but she darn sure had a ninety day calf... I checked her myself after my chewing. :frowns: Mistakes will happen but it doesn't mean that the guy who made the mistake doesn't know what he's doing. I'd much rather take my chewing and bee more careful and still have a good customer who let me know he wasn't happy than lose a customer who would likely wind up firing his next breeder for the same thing since that breeder would't have any warning that there was a problem until it was to late either.

 

[TexasBred]

All of the vets that I work with on a regular basis can blindly call a calf within a two day range. Every one of them is also capable of finding a thirty day calf but none of them will tell you that they can find a thirty day calf accurately every time. I'm also really good at ignoring the occassional string that comes out of an "open" cow and the puss discharge from the occasional "pregnant" cow.
For those of you who don't arm your own cows, you'd be amazed at how easy it is to be wrong inside of a cow. :nod: Big mistakes all the time are a real problem and might be a good reason to find a new vet but a missed small pregnancy every now and then from a bull breeding with no information just comes with the territory.
I got my A$$ chewed thoroughly a few days ago for breeding a cow with a ninety day calf and I've been breeding a hundred head a day for the last ten years so I do know what a pregnant cow feels like. She rode like a hot cow and felt fine so I bred her and never looked at my records(why would I look, she's in heat and feels good) but she darn sure had a ninety day calf... I checked her myself after my chewing. :frowns: Mistakes will happen but it doesn't mean that the guy who made the mistake doesn't know what he's doing. I'd much rather take my chewing and bee more careful and still have a good customer who let me know he wasn't happy than lose a customer who would likely wind up firing his next breeder for the same thing since that breeder would't have any warning that there was a problem until it was to late either.

BS flag on that comment unless you told them the day you bred them on.

 

[Amo]

Yep, I had some cows a few years back that were ridding a lot. I had seen them rid several times. They were bred.

 

[cow pollinater]

BS flag on that comment unless you told them the day you bred them on.

Nope. I should have added that these are mostly all within a two week range of about forty five days and up and after that it gets a little sketchy but they can consistantly call calves within a few days with no information. If anything is out of whack the information is at hand but is rarely refered to.

 

[TexasBred]

BS flag on that comment unless you told them the day you bred them on.

Nope. I should have added that these are mostly all within a two week range of about forty five days and up and after that it gets a little sketchy but they can consistantly call calves within a few days with no information. If anything is out of whack the information is at hand but is rarely refered to.

I still doubt it. M.D.'s don't even get it right all the time with sonograms and parents that can't give them date of conception.

 

[cow pollinater]

I still doubt it. M.D.'s don't even get it right all the time with sonograms and parents that can't give them date of conception.

I don't blame you for doubting it but you have to remember that these guys are arming at least three hundred head a day (one does five hundred a day, six days a week and he's sixty plus years old :shock: ) After a while you get a feel for even the smallest differances.

 

[TexasBred]

I still doubt it. M.D.'s don't even get it right all the time with sonograms and parents that can't give them date of conception.

I don't blame you for doubting it but you have to remember that these guys are arming at least three hundred head a day (one does five hundred a day, six days a week and he's sixty plus years old :shock: ) After a while you get a feel for even the smallest differances.

And after a while you also can't feel anything. As several vets have told me "after 50 head it's just a guess". But I guess they are the exception. Five hundred a day??? I don't figure you can get that many in a chute or headstall in one day....sounds like "Superman".

 

[hillsdown]

I still doubt it. M.D.'s don't even get it right all the time with sonograms and parents that can't give them date of conception.

I don't blame you for doubting it but you have to remember that these guys are arming at least three hundred head a day (one does five hundred a day, six days a week and he's sixty plus years old :shock: ) After a while you get a feel for even the smallest differances.

And after a while you also can't feel anything. As several vets have told me "after 50 head it's just a guess". But I guess they are the exception. Five hundred a day??? I don't figure you can get that many in a chute or headstall in one day....sounds like "Superman".

My vet is one of the top LA vets in the province and specializes in dairy . No way in heck he would guarantee a preg at 30 days. He will say she feels bred or that he can't feel really anything going on so she most likely is bred . With the dairy cows he always asked us to wait until herd health and preg check the next month to recheck if he was unsure about a bred cow, that way we wouldn't accidentally abort. But if he was positive she was open and cycling he would tell us to give her a shot, wait for heat ,or sometimes the follicle of a cow we had been waiting to come into heat ,would break in his fingers and we were told to breed right there and then to the left or to the right.

Must be a heck of a group to work with CP, make sure you hang onto them.

 

[regolith]

Five hundred a day??? I don't figure you can get that many in a chute or headstall in one day....sounds like "Superman".

The AI techs here commonly do 200 in a morning during the breeding season, same AI training I did; the stop watch comes out in the second week of training.
Usually the cows are rowed up on the milking platform, or the more modern farms have a bail where they stand just as they do in a herringbone, but without the pit behind them.

 

[Amo]

Ive been at preg check where they do 300 or so a day. Seam to be on target.

 

[TexasBred]

Ive been at preg check where they do 300 or so a day. Seam to be on target.

No way in hel I'd work against a "stop watch" preg checking cows. There are always the few difficult ones not to mention the one ol' bytch that clamps down on your arm, numbs it and ruins it for the rest of the day. I can see no reason or necessity to do 300 in one day but that's just me.

 

[Amo]

IDK, have plenty of help, Vet is in there proably a minute or 2 tops. Put in ear tag if needed and etc. They start say 9-10 am and done by 4 in the afteernoon with an hour out for dinner. Plenty of help, good facilities (mpt fancy...but adaquite), and the people are very good about getting everything lined up and cows close in the days before. Ive never been inside to preg....Ive AIed but do know what you mean about clamping down. Guess I cant answer that one for ya. Thats just what happens there. They are persnickety enough that if there was a problem they wouldn't have him show up. Of course if you don't repreg the opens you really don't have a check either! Its just here if cows are your only source of income you have to have 200 or so. Most ranches have a father/son so that bumps most of them from 3-500 unless there is row crop or in town work etc. You call in your neighbors and etc and get it done. Usually its hard enough to round up enough help to do it once let alone 3 or 4 smaller groups. Ya you would need less man power for smaller groups, but I guess thats just that.

 

[vclavin]

Ive been at preg check where they do 300 or so a day. Seam to be on target.

No way in hel I'd work against a "stop watch" preg checking cows. There are always the few difficult ones not to mention the one ol' bytch that clamps down on your arm, numbs it and ruins it for the rest of the day. I can see no reason or necessity to do 300 in one day but that's just me.

TB, I rememer the other day at the salebarn... older vet was preg checking the cows and one BIG girls was in line, LOL, the helper asked him if he (doc) wanted him (helper) to hold his legs so he (vet) wouldn't fall in trying to preg her!!
Valerie