We are pregnancy checking our cows today! This is a make or break day for a cow herd. A low breed back rate can signal disease, poor nutrition or bull problems. It also means a huge financial loss. I didn’t sleep well last night just thinking about it. This is how the day went.
7 am – We are out the door to gather the cows. The weather is not nice! A high of 28 and a couple inches of snow on the ground! Mitch pulled all 310 in a 10 acre pasture next to the pens yesterday with the tractor and hay. Today he hits the siren on the feed truck and most of the cows come running while I follow on the four wheeler. After we penned the good cows there is still 50 head out. It’s mostly older cows who have been through this before. Older females are just smarter. We take two four wheelers and start working them in. They keep trying to get away, but they finally go in!
8:30 am – We are gathering up meds and getting everything set. The cows will get a shot of Guardian, a vaccination that gives scour protection to the calves the cows are carrying. They will also be dewormed with Cydectin pour-on.
9 am – The vet, Dr. Melissa DePriest and the three guys who will help today pull in. We spend a little time getting the ultrasound machine set up. Ready to start!
Mitch runs the chute, Adam gives the shot and pours right after the doctor calls bred or open, I keep track of breds/opens and write new ear tags to replace the faded ones.
11:30 am – We have done 160 cows with only a few of the usual problems, a cow that thinks if she crawls through the chute we won’t see her, the one who goes in really slow then takes off like a runaway train so you miss her head and the one who tries to push through the head gate until she chokes herself. Nothing unusual. Time for lunch. I’ve got a pot of hot beef stew and sandwiches in the warm house!
12:15 pm – Back outside. It was kind of hard to leave the warm house. My toes had just started to thaw!
4 pm – We are done! It looks good. I have kept a rough count, but now it’s time to take a better look.
Everything is cleaned up, cattle turned out and hay unrolled. Time to go in and warm up!
Until next time!
Don’t forget to close the gate.