There are several different methods to pregnancy testing and several different reasons why it is important for your herd.

Why preg check?

Reproductive efficiency will always drive your bottom line. There are a lot of different reasons as to why, but at the most simplistic picture of it, open cows eat just as much as bred cows. Especially on drought years like this, that can really affect your profitability.

Cows that do not breed back on the same cycle typically keep getting pushed back until eventually your calving window gets very wide. Open cows also cycle, which can cause enough riding that bred cows can slip their calves or even injure the open cows.

Knowing calving dates not only makes calving simpler, but also allows for value added marketing.

Cons to preg checking

With any method of pregnancy checking, the stress alone can result in a pregnancy loss is estimated to be around 1% to 3.5%. Any stressful event can increase the cow’s cortisol resulting in abortion. Decreasing handling stress is the number one way to decrease these events.

Rectal palpation

The oldest method and still a very true method of pregnancy detection in cattle is via rectal palpation of the uterus.

When I was shadowing some veterinarians at a very busy dairy practice in California, they said that they can detect pregnancy around 30 days with rectal palpation. In my experience, this is very difficult. I’d say the majority of practitioners like the cows to be over 45 days bred if using only rectal palpation.

Very experienced practitioners can give calving dates based on palpation alone, but ultrasound is typically the more reliable resource for staging.

Transrectal ultrasound

The first bovine ultrasound came out in the 1950s with its popularity exploding over the last 20 years. Ultrasounds have become more and more affordable over the years and the veterinary schools have been teaching students how to use them.

With an ultrasound, the fetus can be picked up at day 28, and the sex can be determined typically after 55 days of gestation and up until the fetus falls too far into the pelvis that it can no longer be reached, which can be any time after 90 days bred, in my experience.

Blood test

As of right now on the beef cattle side of things, blood tests are not the first choice in pregnancy detection. You still have to run them through, collect the blood, wait for the results, then sort the opens. The earliest that pregnancy can be detected is the same as ultrasounding at 28 days. The cost is typically less than ultrasounding but about the same as rectally palpating.

Conclusion

When it comes to pregnancy checking, you’ve got options. At the end of the day, it is well worth the money.