Preg Checking

We pregnancy checked our fall cows about a month ago, and I completely forgot to show you how we do that. I know it’s been keeping you up at night that I haven’t posted about it, so I apologize for my lackadaisical ways.

On this particular day, we had about 240 head to do, which is an all-time record for me.

To begin, we moved all the cattle across the road to the barn.

Once in the chute, I gleefully stuck my arm up the cow’s rear end and insert my ultrasound probe to check for a baby. Yes, I stuck my arm up a cow’s backside. And here’s the weird part…I don’t even think it’s disgusting! God gifted me with an extremely high tolerance for cow manure. As in, it really doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I didn’t even take off my gloves when we stopped for lunch. It’s just a little extra seasoning, I figure.

I kid! I kid. I took my gloves off. Geesh.

Just don’t let me get near human snot or talk to me with a booger hanging out of your nose because that makes me want to throw up. As in, I run for the hills and gag and belch and turn all shades of green, but cow manure? No biggy.

Anyway, once I have my arm fully inserted in the cow’s nether region, I watch my ultrasound machine and look for a baby. Now that black and white image on the screen might not look like anything, but it is! It’s a baby!

See those bright white lines the arrows are pointing at? That’s the baby’s backbone. This is a big baby that is actually larger than my ultrasound screen…it’s head would run off the lower right side of my screen and the rest of the calf would run off the left side.

We like to see big babies. That means the cow settled on her first cycle and all is well with the world.

Here’s another look at a baby. See his head? He’s looking right at you!

Maybe this helps. Again, this is a big baby. I would guess he is around 100 days old. However, if a trained veterinarian tells you that the baby on the screen is clearly 125 days old, believe him. I really have no idea how to age a fetus…I just guess. It makes Clint and Joe so happy. But hey, at least I know she’s bred!

And I figure doctor’s use my same technique because according to the ultrasound, Rhett was supposed to be born on April 24th, but he was actually born on April 7th. (That’s how I justify my less-than-pin-point-accuracy on determining days bred anyway.)

I love to preg check. It’s like an Easter egg hunt. It’s just so exciting to find a baby!

And I am happy to report that we got all 240 head preg checked with plenty of daylight left. Plus, we had a very successful breeding season with around 94% of the cows bred. And, our snow began to melt, so it was just a great day all around.

I hope you’ve enjoyed watching how we preg check our cows.

Have a great day!