Preg-Checks

Tuesdays and Thursdays at the farm are very busy days, our veterinarian will come to the farm to assist us with various important tasks on these days. On Tuesdays we do pregnancy checks on some of the cows that have been bred. There is a lot of information regarding the breeding process, sire selection, artificial insemination and more, so I will split these general topics into separate posts throughout the week. Today we checked around thirty cows to confirm if they are pregnant and to keep a record of the length of the pregnancy to ensure that we are able to dry them off at the proper time. All of this information is kept in a computer program which we can access and search any animals information on. To preform a preg-check, our vet has a portable ultrasound machine that fits in a backpack and has a cord attached to a pair of fancy looking goggles that they can look through to observe the reproductive system.

While our vet is checking the pregnancy status of our animals, they are also looking at specific biological cues from the ovaries of any non-pregnant cow. At our farm we have two different vaccinations that we will give our cows when we are preparing to breed them as they help to regulate the reproductive cycles. The two vaccinations are called GnRH and Lutalyse. GnRH is naturally produced by the pituitary gland of all animals and it will help the animal form a follicle on the ovary. This follicle will contain a single egg that will be ready for fertilization once released from the ovary. Lutalyse, otherwise known at luteinizing hormone is another naturally produced hormone from the hypothalamus and this has a special role in bringing an animal into heat. For anyone interested in the more technical aspect of this hormone, it will cause the removal of a corpus luteum. A corpus luteum will appear on the ovary after every single menstrual cycle and this will produce another hormone called progesterone which helps the uterus prepare to carry an embryo! When a corpus luteum is removed the production of progesterone will drop and the animal will go into heat which will be an optimal time for breeding. 

This was a very technical post about several different hormones and their interactions in the reproductive system of cows! Please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email with any burning questions. 

Today we shipped 5,566 gallons of milk and had three new bull calves!