Cattle Vets Deliver… profitability through PREGCHECK™: Professional Reproductive Examination

In all herds, reproductive management is pivotal to profitability. Knowing the pregnancy status is fundamental to having control over the calving pattern.

PREGCHECK™ Fact Sheet

Download the PREGCHECK™ Fact Sheet – Dairy

Download the PREGCHECK™ Fact Sheet – Beef

PREGCHECK™ Case Studies

Download the Dairy Case Study – PREGCHECK™ & BULLCHECK™

Download the Beef Case Study – PREGCHECK™ & BULLCHECK™

Accurate pregnancy diagnosis allows for:

• Better control of the calving pattern including the ability to identify the empty and later calving cows so they can be sold or run as separate groups. The ability to market stock to generate cash flow at the earliest opportunity or to increase the value of late calving cows by selling them as confirmed pregnant.

•  Better monitoring and analysis improved diagnosis, control, prevention and treatment of reproductive diseases.
•  Increase profitability. Better management decisions mean better profitability.
•  Better nutritional and grazing management knowing the calving pattern in advance allows strategic use of periods of high pasture availability, appropriate use of supplementary  feeding, superior feed budgeting and better control of the stocking rate.
•  Better welfare knowing the pregnancy status and expected calving date of the pregnant cow allows appropriate monitoring during the pre-calving period. Preventing cows from calving  during a ship voyage or during transportation is essential.
•  Improvements in the fertility of the herd due to better management of herd genetics and culling of appropriate animals.

A PREGCHECK™, Professional Reproductive Examination delivers producers confidence in using an accredited cattle vet to deliver accurate pregnancy diagnosis.

A PREGCHECK™ can only be performed by an accredited vet, meaning a member of Australian Cattle Vets who has demonstrated knowledge and experience in the pregnancy diagnosis of cattle and undergone an examination by their peers.

Taking a holistic approach, a PREGCHECK™ accredited vet provides enhanced accountability as they are able to pregnancy test, assess, diagnose and monitor the reproductive outcomes of a beef or dairy herd to deliver increased farm profitability.

Currently the most popular and effective methods of pregnancy diagnosis are rectal palpation and ultrasonography and these are the only methods approved for pregnancy diagnosis in the PREGCHECK™ professional reproductive examination.

1. Per-rectal Palpation Palpation of the uterus, the foetus and the placenta through the rectum, this widely adopted method of pregnancy detection is an inexpensive, reliable and accurate diagnostic technique. A skilled operator can diagnose pregnancy from 35 days after insemination.

PREGCHECK™ accredited veterinarians have demonstrated accuracy superior to ultrasounds or blood tests alone.

A 2014 study of 4,000 cows over 40 properties found 4.4% of pregnancies went undiagnosed by ultrasound alone, confirmed by follow up manual palpation.

A widely used commercial blood test to diagnose pregnancy correctly identified 99.3% of pregnancies but incorrectly assigned pregnancy to 6.2% of empty animals.

Modelling suggests that animals inaccurately diagnosed cost producers on average at least $300.  Every percentage point of inaccuracy therefore could be calculated to cost producers $3 per head, even before they receive the bill. Do the maths! Ensure that your enterprise is getting accurate pregnancy advice, call an Accredited Cattle Vet.

2. Ultrasonography

Ultrasonography has become useful in pregnancy diagnosis due to the development of portable two-dimensional real-time systems. Under ideal conditions, pregnancy can be confirmed by u/s down to 20 days gestation. However pregnancy diagnosis at this stage is slow and the fragility of the pregnancy is high. PREGCHECK ™ accredited vets regularly and safely perform pregnancy diagnosis under commercial conditions from 28 days gestation.

Ultrasound can be very quick in a good setup, and very easy on the cows, but can be unreliable at detecting empty cows or heavily pregnant cows. Accredited vets are able to reliably use per-rectal palpation when necessary including certifying females for the live export trade.

Invest in your future with an accurate, professional and reliable diagnosis that you can trust – the recognised and respected PREGCHECK™, with its associated coloured tag system, can only be performed by an accredited cattle vet and is assurance to better return at the farm gate.

Only accredited vets can perform a PREGCHECK™. The PREGCHECK™ scheme is your guarantee of quality as it is:

• accountable
• audited
• the only system that allows for use of the highly recognised PREGCHECK™ tail tags.