In addition, a commercial cattleman can seldom afford to winter a beef cow that is not carrying a calf. The best way to avoid this is by having a competent veterinarian pregnancy-check all cows that should be pregnant in late summer or fall at weaning time. Research shows that pregnancy examination to detect open cows and replace them with heifers increases the herd pregnancy rate by 13 percent. The cost saved by not wintering one open cow will usually pay for pregnancy-checking 25 cows. The main equipment needed is a head gate or squeeze chute.
Veterinarians often supply the latter.
Even with pregnancy examinations, you may not get a 100 percent calf crop from cows diagnosed pregnant because disease, environmental stress and stillbirths cause losses. Another common cause of lost breeding time is an infertile bull. Often, the producer doesn't discover the infertility for one or more months. Cattle producers in Missouri lose thousands of dollars each year in this way. A competent veterinarian can examine the bull for breeding soundness and often identify defects that would decrease a calf crop.