– Pedro L. P. Fontes, Extension Beef Reproductive Physiologist, UGA Department of Animal and Dairy Science; A. Lee Jones, Associate Professor, UGA College of Veterinary Medicine; Tammy W. Cheely, Glascock, Hancock and Warren Counties Extension Coordinator, UGA Extension Office; Savannah Tanner, Emmanuel County Agriculture & Natural Resource Agent
Reproductive tract of a pregnant (left) and open (right) cow.
Pregnancy diagnosis is an important part of reproductive management in productive beef cow–calf operations. Keeping a nonpregnant cow on the farm for an entire year has negative economic implications because she accrues the same cost of a pregnant cow, but without generating income. With the move toward more efficient operations and inclusion of artificial insemination (AI) and other reproductive technologies in cattle production, abstaining from pregnancy diagnosis may no longer be economically viable or practical. Establishing a pregnancy diagnosis program allows for the detection of cows that are not pregnant and allows producers to make management decisions to increase reproductive efficiency, such as culling of infertile females or resynchronizing females that are open.
Open cows decrease profitability as they use similar resources as pregnant cows without producing a marketable calf to justify these costs. In a hypothetical well–managed beef cattle operation with 100 brood cows exposed to a 75–day breeding season, we can expect pregnancy rates at the end of the breeding season to range between 85 and 95%. If we consider cow cost in this operation to be $700 per cow per year, and final pregnancy rates to be 90%, this operation is spending an extra . . .
Continue reading Strategically Using Pregnancy Diagnosis to Identify Nonpregnant Cows