Sandi Jephcott

Well-known Queensland cattle vet Dr Sandi Jephcott offers an opinion about the value of PREGCHECK-accredited practitioners, when preg testing  

ANNUAL pregnancy testing of all breeders – not just non-lactating cows – is a vital management tool to improve herd productivity and profitability.

The application of this procedure will vary slightly depending on whether the bulls are only with the breeders for a controlled joining period of 42 days (two cycles), 65 days (three cycles) or the traditional three months, or continuous joining is applied (more common in extensive herds in northern Australia).

Bulls can remain all year in a controlled joining situation if start and end dates of the controlled joining are noted, and breeders are pregnancy-tested six weeks after the end date and all empty cows are identified to be culled.

It is also vital that all non-lactating cows at branding, particularly first-calf cows, are identified and culled, as these cows have lost their calf, mostly through disease or poor mothering. And it is highly repeatable, meaning these cows are likely to lose their calf in subsequent pregnancies.

Foetal ageing and removal of empty cows at pregnancy test and removal of cows that have lost a calf at branding:

• improves the genetic fertility of the herd
• retains only productive cows in the herd so stocking rate is matched to carrying capacity – particularly in dry times but even in good years it may allow breeders to retain more heifers or trade cattle
• minimises disease
• foetal ageing will identify the conception pattern of the herd which, with further testing, can identify the negative impact of disease, bull break-down or nutritional variation in the pasture
• foetal ageing and therefore predominant calving periods will also allow owners to know at what time they should monitor the calving herd, particularly heifers, for dystocia, predation and mismothering
• knowledge of calving periods allows owners to plan branding which should be when the youngest calf is three months of age. Extensive research has shown that mustering cows and calves within two months of calving will lead to a 10pc increase in calf loss.

In recent years there has been a large increase in the use of ultrasound for pregnancy testing cows.

Many people buying this tool have limited training and no knowledge of manual pregnancy testing by hand.

Many people buying ultrasounds with limited training set themselves up as ‘expert’ pregnancy testers and charge $3/cow for producer clients that hire them to pregnancy test their herd. These ‘experts’ frequently mis-diagnose pregnancy status so, contrary to the client’s requirement, pregnant cows are sent to slaughter and empty cows are retained.

The gold standard for pregnancy testing accreditation schemes is the Australian Cattle Veterinarian (ACV) PREGCHECK scheme, previously called National Cattle Pregnancy Diagnosis (NCPD).

PREGCHECK is a nationally-recognised system of coloured tail tags showing pregnancy status of cattle, predominantly red tag indicating pregnancy of greater than four months, blue tag indicating less than four months and green and white tag not detectably pregnant.

The PREGCHECK scheme seeks to promote excellence in cattle pregnancy testing skills, by way of peer-based assessment and the provision of educational material.

For a person to become an accredited manual PREGCHECK veterinarian, they must keep a log book as evidence that they have pregnancy tested at least 2000 head of cattle. Once they have achieved this, they will be tested by an ACV recognised PREGCHECK examiner.

If they pass, they are given a PREGCHECK number that will appear on their tags and they can record their number on the accompanying form when cattle are sold by a client.

Further, to be accredited as an ultrasound PREGCHECK veterinarian, the practitioner must first complete the above requirements for manual pregnancy testing then obtain another log back and record ultrasound pregnancy testing of a further 2000 head. Once this has been achieved, they will be tested by an ACV approved examiner and if they pass, they will get a number and be able to purchase tail tags.

If an ACV accredited ultrasound PREGCHECK vet scans a cow and it appears empty, they must manually check this diagnosis, as an ultrasound scan can only pick up a pregnant uterus when it is within the pelvic cavity which usually only occurs when less than four months pregnant.

Between five and seven months pregnant, the foetus is consistently at the bottom of the abdominal cavity so cannot be detected by an ultrasound.

So this is when non-veterinarian ultrasound pregnancy testers, that have no training in manual pregnancy testing, call a pregnant cow empty and cause a highly productive cow to be sent to slaughter.

The landmark for manual pregnancy testing is the cervix and many of these non-accredited ‘expert’ pregnancy testers do not even know what a cervix is.

Further to this misleading and absolutely incorrect use of an ultrasound, many pregnancy testing schools will give attendees a certificate indicating they are qualified to pregnancy test sale cattle.

Many of these schools have up to 15 attendees and only one crush to restrain the cow, so over the three days of the school, each participant will receive a theory lecture and only pregnancy test less than 20 cows (sometimes less than ten).

This is a long way from the 2000 required under the PREGCHECK standard.

Cattle are biological, not machines, so the pregnant uterus will vary in each cow at similar gestation periods, hence PRGCHECK requests log book evidence of pregnancy testing at least 2000 cows before a person can be presented to an examiner.

Pregnancy testing is no longer an act of veterinary science in Queensland, and there are some very good non-veterinarian pregnancy testers.

But due to no regulations or accreditation schemes, it is a real case of ‘buyer beware’, as there are some ‘sharks’ out there with very limited experience just trying to make money off producers.

Some highly inexperienced ultrasound operators are also employed at feedlots, and feeder cattle suppliers to that feedlot may be docked for a pregnancy that does not exist.

Possible solutions include getting feedback from the meatworks about the number of pregnant cows present in the supposed empties sent down, and if selling heifers or cows to a feedlot, get them pregnancy tested by a veterinarian so they arrive with a vet certificate.