Use early age scans to get accurate calving dates and make informed decisions for your herd.
Calving hasn’t long finished and mating is still in full swing, so it may seem too early to start thinking about pregnancy testing? Wrong! Now is a great time to think about your scanning requirements.
If you have done a synchrony programme on your heifers, an early aged scan (6 weeks after AI) can help identify which heifers are carrying AI replacements and which have held to the bull. This needs to be done as close to six weeks as possible to enable accurate identification.
When to scan
In cows, the best time to age a pregnancy accurately is between 42 and 90 days after mating. For this reason, we normally recommend two scans for aging:
One in January to age the earlies,
A second re-check scan to confirm the empties and age the lates.
Why early age scan?
Knowing accurate calving dates enables you to make informed decisions around wintering and transition management.
Cows should be in the springer mob for 2-3 weeks before calving for optimum transition. Aged scanning is the best tool to help you draft springers appropriately. It also enables us to calculate 3-week and 6-week in-calf rates, to see how well you are meeting targets.
Other benefits of scanning are that we can identify reproductive issues such as infections or cysts, and we may also identify cows carrying twins.
What to expect
Our amazing team of techs are pros at recording and will send you out detailed reports within 24 hours of doing the job, including a list of empties.
Your results will also be uploaded into MINDA, although this takes a couple of days to synch up. You can help with accuracy by making sure your ear tags are all present, correct and clean!
Your KeyVet can then provide more in-depth analysis of your farm’s reproductive performance if you want to look into it further.
If you regularly scan with VetSouth, one of our team will be ringing you soon to book in your scanning. If you are new to scanning with us, or would like to know more, please contact your KeyVet or our friendly Farm Services team to discuss your scanning needs.
