– Dr. Andrew Griffith, Assistant Professor, Livestock Marketing Specialist, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Tennessee
Preg check vs winter an open cow?!
What is the value of pregnancy evaluation in the beef cow herd?
The first thing most people think about is the out of pocket expense associated with pregnancy evaluation, and there is certainly a cost to doing it. However, there is also a cost to carrying a cow that eats and drinks and takes up space every day if she does not produce a calf that year.
A liberal cost estimate for pregnancy evaluation would be about $10 per head. Thus, it would cost about $300 for a 30-cow herd. If one animal is found to be open at the time of evaluation, how much grass, hay or other feedstuffs will that cow consumer in dollars between the time of pregnancy evaluation and when she should calve?
In most cases, pregnancy evaluation would take place between two and four months bred. If it is assumed that the cows would have six months between evaluation and calving then the person who did not perform an evaluation would feed an open cow for 180 days. How many open cows does it take to pay for pregnancy evaluation?