Strategically Using Pregnancy Diagnosis to Identify Nonpregnant Cows

Apr 07, 2022

By Pedro L. P. Fontes

Pregnancy diagnosis is an important part of reproductive management in productive beef cow–calf operations. Keeping a nonpregnant cow on the farm for an entire year has negative economic implications because she accrues the same cost of a pregnant cow, but without generating income. With the move toward more efficient operations and inclusion of artificial insemination (AI) and other reproductive technologies in cattle production, abstaining from pregnancy diagnosis may no longer be economically viable or practical. Establishing a pregnancy diagnosis program allows for the detection of cows that are not pregnant and allows producers to make management decisions to increase reproductive efficiency, such as culling of infertile females or resynchronizing females that are open.

cow

Open cows decrease profitability as they use similar resources as pregnant cows without producing a marketable calf to justify these costs. In a hypothetical well–managed beef cattle operation with 100 brood cows exposed to a 75–day breeding season, we can expect pregnancy rates at the end of the breeding season to range between 85 and 95%. If we consider cow cost in this operation to be $700 per cow per year, and final pregnancy rates to be 90%, this operation is spending an extra . . .

Source : osu.edu

Video: Validating Net Energy in Commercial Swine Systems - Gustavo Lima

In this episode of The Swine Nutrition Blackbelt Podcast, Gustavo Lima, PhD candidate at Iowa State University, explains how soybean meal net energy is evaluated using growth assays and calorimetry. He discusses caloric efficiency, validation under commercial conditions, and differences between controlled and real-world environments. Gustavo also highlights practical implications for diet formulation and ingredient valuation. Listen now on all major platforms!

“Indirect calorimetry provides a precise estimation of ingredient energy, yet validation under production conditions remains essential for accurate application in real systems.”

Meet the guest: Gustavo Lima / gustavo-lima-a9867127 is a PhD candidate in Animal Science at Iowa State University, specializing in swine nutrition, ingredient evaluation, and energy metabolism. With over 15 years of experience across Latin America, his work focuses on soybean meal utilization, caloric efficiency, and applied research for commercial production systems.