Does it Pay to Use an Ultrasound Machine for Early Pregnancy Diagnosis in Dairy Cows?

Abstract

Pregnancy diagnosis is regarded as an important and necessary component of a complete dairy herd health program (Olternacu et al. , 1990). The main objective of such a comprehensive program is to make sure that healthy productive cows calve at 12-13 month intervals to optimize their life milk production. Seegers and Malher (1996) reported that every open day past 100 days in milk costs between $2.50 and $4.00 to dairy producers. Early pregnancy diagnosis can assist dairymen in managing open cows and improving reproductive performance and economics of their herd (Olternacu et al., 1990).