Preg checking is, you guessed it, checking the cows to see if they are pregnant or not. You also look for late cows or early cows. An early cow could calve too early in the winter and lose her calf in snow. A late cow will have a smaller calf at shipping and the next year she will probably breed later again. Preg checking is something most, if not all, ranchers in Southeastern Montana do. Let's face it, we don't need anymore dead weight around here, especially with our drought-like conditions and all of the grazing lost to fire. Oh yea, we haven't talked about the fires yet, have we? Alright, that can wait for another day. Anyway, because we have a spring calving schedule, we preg check the cows and heifers in the late fall or early winter. This is the best time for the vet to get a good idea of due dates and for everyone not to freeze their butt off too much!
The first time I had the pleasure of preg checking this year was with my boyfriend's family. My boyfriend and I have been dating for about six months now and he comes from a ranching family too. Anyway, the first time we EVER worked cows together was actually about two weeks before we preg checked. We were helping his family pre-condition the calves that were to be sold. So let me tell you, my boyfriend has never even considered raising his voice to me- he's not that kind of guy. But.... let me tell you something else. His family apparently gets just a little crazy around cows. And yes, I know first hand about getting crazy around cows. I come from crazy family numero uno. We yell, we fight, we get over it. The thing is my brother can yell at me and I'm like "Oh duh, there's a cow right there trying to escape" or something. However, when my boyfriend yells at me I think in my head, "Is he talking to me? Why is he yelling at me? What am I doing wrong? HOW DARE HE YELL AT ME!!?!" So... as you can imagine, the first time any cattle-related yelling involved my boyfriend and I, one of us was just a teeny bit upset. *cough cough* In his defense a calf was trying to jump over the alley, and he was worried for my safety. Still, I was upset. And I may or may not have told him that I was never working cows with him again because he's mean and terrible. Okay I definitely told him that. Then I pouted for the rest of the day.
So when he told me his parents wanted help AGAIN my first reaction wasn't no, it was heck no. Then I reconsidered because I didn't really want to spend the day without him and he promised he would be nice and not terrible. So we did round 2, and there was the same amount of yelling, although less directed at me. Everything turned out alright, and we lived happily ever after. Or something like that ;) All in all, his parents' cows tested well. I think they had around 10 open from about 350 head. Those are good numbers on a normal year, and really great numbers for the dry year we've had.
A few weeks ago I preg checked with my parents. We used a tub, which is possibly the best invention, like, ever. A tub is basically a half-moon entrance into an alley with a swinging door. You open the door, push a few cows in, close to the door behind them and push them up into the alley and into the chute. BAM! Super efficient. It's a lot less stressful for the cows and it just goes so much smoother than a regular alley and chute. All in all the herd of my parent's that we check were good. We had a few lates and then maybe 5 opens out of 175 head. None of my cows have been checked yet, because they were in another pasture and we are doing them separately sometime this month. I hope they all check alright, but I'm a little worried that my coming 3 year-old might be open since she aborted after jumping the fence last year. I guess we will see huh? Well anyway, it's past my bedtime and I have about a kazillion things to do tomorrow.
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