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and carcass qualities the
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28 | OCTOBER 2017
Reproduction
The Benefits of Pregnancy
Diagnosis
By John F. Grimes, Ohio State University Extension
We are entering an exciting time of the year for cow-calf
producers. They have started or soon will be weaning
their spring-born calves. Weaning is an excellent time to
prepare the calf crop to become herd replacements or for
future marketing opportunities by implementing health
programs and transitioning to feed rations. It is also a great
time to determine the pregnancy status of the breeding
herd. Management practices for both these groups can go
a long way to determine the ultimate profitability of herd.
The factor that should ultimately sort a female to the
keep or cull pen is pregnancy status. The three primary
methods used in pregnancy diagnosis are rectal palpation,
ultrasound evaluation, or blood testing. Each of these
methods can effectively diagnose the female’s pregnancy
status when properly implemented. Obviously, the
preferred result is for the female to be pregnant. Pregnancy
diagnosis is relatively inexpensive, especially when you
consider the potential savings of expenses it facilitates.
While variable costs such as feed have moderated somewhat
lately, it is still fairly expensive to maintain a cow on an
annual basis. Producers often fail to consider fixed costs such
as machinery, buildings, management, and replacement
animal expense. We do not have enough space in this article
to debate a sample budget, but it is fair to say the annual
carrying costs for a beef female can run from $700 to over
$1,000 depending on the situation. An open female is not
going to generate any income to help pay the bills.
Carrying an open female over to the next year or the next
breeding season only compounds the accumulation of
expenses. In nearly every case, the producer would be better off
selling the open female and replacing her with a bred female.
This is particularly true of yearling females. If you can’t get a
properly developed, healthy yearling heifer bred in a 60- to
90-day breeding season, sell her as a heavy feeder calf or finish
her out to harvest weight. If she is sub-fertile as a yearling,
she will likely have fertility problems as a mature female.
At the risk of stating the obvious, the pregnant female
is the foundation for any productive cow-calf operation.
Hopefully the female will calve in a relatively short
calving season that occurs during the months of the