Tail bleeding for preg checking

Do you like it or not? What kind of results? I have heard good and bad so I thought I would ask a bigger population of people. I have never done it but it gives a quicker result so wondering if its something I should try.

We've been using the SEK test for a while now & are pleased with getting results so quickly.  We still do "heat watch" to see if we missed an AI, but it has really helped us to know within 30 days in case we missed a heat.  Arthritic hands just have a hard time on palpation preg check nowadays!

We love it... it takes out a lot of the human error and we feel that it would have a lower risk of causing cows to lose early pregnancies than palpation would. It fast, affordable, not hard to do and if you follow the directions I think it is pretty accurate.

We also use SEK

Love it!  The resuts have been 100% accurate for us.

mccannfarms said:

We love it... it takes out a lot of the human error and we feel that it would have a lower risk of causing cows to lose early pregnancies than palpation would. It fast, affordable, not hard to do and if you follow the directions I think it is pretty accurate.

We also use SEK

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Genetic Horizons SEK is in Ks.the best and very affordable

I second the motion for SEK ,WE LIVE forty miles from town and with this method works for AIing ,saves mileage for vets ,and can do pasture at a time instead of doing all in one day ....

Can someone give me the down low on the SEK procedure? I know this might be a dumb question, but I actually don't know what it is.  We are looking for a new way to preg check our cows, the vet just isn't doing to well considering we lost two calves to coyotes because they were born out in the field with the late cows.

I love the idea of the blood test but I remember in reproductive physiology class that pregnancy specific protein b can be expressed for 90-120 days making the test irrelevant in females that have calved. So basically I thought it was only accurate for bred heifers.

That would explain the reason or requirement the cow has to be at least 90 days post-partim and 30 days bred before the blood can be pulled to give an accurate result.  If what you say is true (90 - 120 days), that still leaves another 30 days for the protein b to be present.  Does anyone have anything else to offer on this 90 - 120 day wait?  How often will it still be present after 90 days?  Maybe the margin of error of a few percent comes into play here.

steerkid21 said:

Can someone give me the down low on the SEK procedure? I know this might be a dumb question, but I actually don't know what it is.  We are looking for a new way to preg check our cows, the vet just isn't doing to well considering we lost two calves to coyotes because they were born out in the field with the late cows.

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http://www.sekgenetics.com/testing.html#biopryn-test will give you the info.

After years of having cows palpated, and not being patient enough to get cows in, bleed them, send it in, wait for results, get cows back in and sort,
I have then ultrasounded now.  So far, 100% accurate on bred and open, maybe a few off a few weeks on calving dates, but when done early, that isn't an issue.
Find an experienced ultrasound tech or vet and you should have excellent results with NO fetal loss.

We also use SEK... it has been 100% accurate.  its pretty easy to do.  much better and cheaper than having a Vet out!  Less stress on cows!