Preg' Checkin': The Sequel

I think every one knows we raise cattle.  We raise them from calves to when they're finished out for your steaks and hamburgers.  Part of being able to do that is having good, solid breeding stock that's bred in a timely manner.  If a cow is infertile or too old to conceive, then we have to send her on her merry way.  We can't keep another mouth to feed if she's not going to be productive.

The majority of the cows in the herd will become pregnant in a timely manner.  However, there are some that, for various reasons, calve past the normal calving season at the beginning of spring.  For those cows who have not calved by the end of the season, we pregnancy check.  Pregnancy checking tells us if the cow is pregnant but just later than the majority of the herd or if she's not pregnant at all.

There's a couple ways to preg check.  One way is to physically check for a calf.  I've done a blog about that a couple years ago.  If you care to read about that, you can go here: Preg' Checkin'  The past blog post explains how Josh can reach inside the cow and feel whether or not there's a calf present.  Or, if he can't feel the calf because it's so small, he can sometimes feel if the cow's uterus has acclimated to pregnancy.  This is probably the most convenient way of preg checking. However...

Sometimes if the pregnancy is still in its very early stages and its too small to feel but we still need to know who's pregnant and who's not so we can maintain the herd properly, we can do blood tests. Which is just what we found ourselves doing last Saturday.

One of my jobs is to keep records.  There's two sets of records to be kept: The one on the left is the record of the ones that Josh sleeves (physically checks) and the one on the right is the record of the vials of blood that we send in to the lab to test.

In this picture you can also see some of the other things I work with.  There's a container of needles and a container of empty vials that I prep for the guys to use to collect the blood sample.  The roll of toilet paper is used to clean the vials, the empty juice jar collects the used tissue and needles to be disposed of properly and the box of additional supplies.

Here's what the needle looks like after I prep it.  The actual needle has to be assembled on the clear part thingymajig there. The needle you see is the part of the needle used on the cow to draw the blood sample. The clear part thingymajig shields a longer part of the needle that punctures a rubber seal on the top of the vial that collects the sample.  When it punctures the seal and Josh draws back the vial, it creates a vacuum that quickly sucks (for lack of a better word) blood from the blood vein.  It works just like one of those big Styrofoam pool squirt guns drawing up water.

Josh and Loren work together to take the sample.  The blood is drawn from a vein on the bottom side of the cow's tail.  Since it's not exactly the easiest place to get to, Loren pulls the tail up and over while Josh uses both hands to take the sample.  Just like with people and finding their veins for IVs, sometimes Josh can find the vein with the first try and it'll only be a minute before we have a vial of blood.  Sometimes, for the more unfortunate ones, it takes a few tries and several minutes.  Either way, the cow isn't in pain.  While the men are taking the sample, the cow is in the head gate to restrain it.  (That doesn't hurt either, just makes them confused... and sometimes mad.)  If the cow is unsettled, sometimes I'll stand in front of her to distract her of her situation.  I've seen many a cow from that point of view and I can surely say, the cow doesn't give any indication that she even feels the prick.

Here's what the head gate is.  It squeezes the cow at the shoulders to keep her and whoever is working on her safe during whatever procedure is going on.

After the sample is collected, I label it and make sure the label with the vial number is accurate with the records on paper.

Here's the vial, labeled and ready to be sent in.  I'll get it packaged and prepare the next setup while the men are taking another sample.  Sometimes it's just a few head of cows, sometimes it a lot.  Each time is a different scenario.  This time happened to be quite a few.  By the time we were all said and done, we had a pretty smooth routine going!

We all play a part in it.  The kids play nicely and allow us to work without causing mischief.  While we usually have them help us keep the cows moving through the chute when we work cattle, there just isn't much room for them when we do this.  (Plus there's needles and blood involved... not exactly little(ish) kid friendly!  Mama makes them stay away!)  I do what I just showed you I do and package everything to get ready to be shipped to the lab.  The men do what I just showed you the men do, plus they have to gather the herd up to the barn and sort them out and bring them through in smaller batches.  And Rhonda takes on the responsibility of actually getting the package to the post office and mailed off.  No job is too small!  If anyone didn't do what they are asked to do, things could break down pretty quickly and not go near as smoothly or be near as successful as it could be.

There's a reason I share all this: I can't tell you how many times I've had to pass on something or 'nother because I had a job to do at home and I get the weirdest looks and responses of disbelief.  Or comical reactions of redneckedness. This is to kinda show that I'm really not making an excuse.  I actually do help, to the best of my ability, with whatever I'm asked to do.  And usually I don't know exactly know when that's going to be.  So sometimes I just answer that "I'll wait and see what the day brings".  I didn't know that I'd be doing this on Saturday morning until just before we did it.

It also shows that there's probably a lot more to that hamburger you eat than you think.  And this post is just the tip of the iceberg of the jobs that we do to keep 'Merica fed.

Thank a farmer.  And his family.

And eat beef!