Pregnancy evaluation = good return on the investment

– Dr. Andrew Griffith, Assistant Professor, Livestock Marketing Specialist, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Tennessee

Is pregnancy evaluation the single most valuable thing we can do?

What is the single most valuable thing a cow-calf producer can do to increase profitability in their herd?

This question is like asking which organs in a body are the most important and are necessary to live. The Good Lord put every organ in a person’s body for a reason so it is probably best if they all stay where they were placed. Similarly, there is no single management decision that is the “most important” as most of them have a symbiotic relationship in that one decision influences other decisions.

There are a couple of protocols or production management decisions that have tremendous value. One of those is pregnancy evaluation of the cow herd. I have participated in two pregnancy evaluations in recent weeks. One of those was a 100 cow herd and the other a 30 cow herd. It cost less than $5 per head to check the 100 cow herd and less than $10 per head for the 30 cow herd.

This is certainly a management practice that has a good return on the investment as feeding an open female can be expensive.