Knowing if a cow is in-calf is a vital part of future planning for the herd and the upcoming season.
Aged pregnancy diagnosis (scanning) allows for clearer expectations and better management in spring, as you will accurately know when cows will be due to calve. Scanning also allows the mating season to be evaluated through conception rates, which may influence how you look to improve in the future.
We age scan by measuring biometrics of the foetus, either body length, trunk diameter or head length. Based on how long these are we calculate the equivalent days.
To accurately age a pregnancy, the foetus should ideally be between 40-100 days. Once the foetus gets over 100 days old, the uterus is getting large and can fall off the edge of the pelvis, pulling it into the abdomen and making it very hard to see with the scanner. Anything over 120 days generally all we see is the odd foot or cotyledons (which vary in size anyway so cannot be used for aging).
Scanning also allows us to quickly assess the ‘health’ of the pregnancy. This can help you identify cows that have slipped or that you may need to keep a close eye on. Indicators that the foetus may be dead include: detached embryonic membranes free floating in the fluid, very little fluid, and “dirty” looking fluid. We may also be able to see if the foetus’ heart is still beating.
We have two types of scanner: a sector scanner (the metal probe that spins) and a curved linear scanner (the plastic probe). These give quite different imaging outcomes because they produce images that are 90 degrees different to one another!
Over the coming seasons we will be phasing out the sector scanners and moving more towards the linear scanners as they are lighter.
Another change coming up is we will be moving away from using Infovet and opting to put information directly into MINDA for LIC herds and MyHerd for CRV herds. This will impact overheads and will reduce the cost of scanning by 30c/animal for those herds that have been using the Infovet tablet.
To make this happen we will need access to your herd codes and request permission to view/edit your MINDA. We will contact you directly if this affects you.
