Producer Question from 2012
Q. How long after inseminating a cow can you determine whether she is pregnant? What is the earliest? (April 24, 2012)
A. There are experienced, trained people that can detect pregnancy via rectal palpation. The experienced ones can probably accurately detect a 40 day pregnancy.
Ultrasound can be used to detect pregnancy and a technician can recognize a 25 to 30 day pregnancy.
There are also commercial laboratories that have blood tests available called BioPryn® Bovine Pregnancy Tests that a producer can send a blood sample from the cow into for analysis. These tests work for cows that are more than 90 days post calving and are at least 30 days from the time of breeding.
Dr. Rick Rasby, Professor of Animal Science
Animal Science, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE