Author: Colby Guffey
Planning Unit: Clinton County CES
Major Program: Beef
Plan of Work: Livestock, Poultry & Crops
Outcome: Initial Outcome
Beef cattle production in Clinton County remains a vital part of the Ag economy. In the fall of 2020 a local beef cattle producer identified a need for producers to learn proper palpation techniques to identify open cows in the herd. In recent years a growing number of cattle producers have implemented blood pregnancy testing of cattle to determine stage of gestation, while this is a valuable tool for producers it requires a couple of extra days to know the status of pregnancy. A group of producers indicated interest in learning to palpate cows in order to be able to identify open cows in the chute and make management decisions without having to sort cows later. The Clinton County Extension office partnered with the local stockyards, cooperating producers and an independent instructor to host a pregnancy evaluation school. Eight local producers attended the two day course, beginning with a classroom type setting of learning cattle anatomy before palpating cows to determine pregnancy status. Cooperating producers provided around 70 head of cows in various stages of pregnancy to be utilized in the hands-on portion of the class. Producers were able to palpate several head of cattle each over the two day period to get the feel for the different stages of pregnancy in cattle. Producers participating in the class quickly realized the level of difficulty in determining pregnancy status in cattle. After the two day class about half of the producers participating were confident in making a call on pregnancy stage, the other half indicated they will palpate their own herd to get more practice before feeling confident. Even if 100% of the producers were not confident in determining pregnancy, they all gained valuable knowledge in Cattle reproduction, anatomy and physiology, and estrous synchronization techniques.
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