Q&A for How to Tell if a Cow or Heifer Is Pregnant

Yes, a heifer other than the mother can start producing milk if nursed upon by another's calf.

Yes. It's normal for a heifer to start showing a full udder when they're around four months away from calving. Some heifers don't show any udder until after they have calved, and that is normal too. Unlike cows, heifers are unpredictable with udder development and signs that they're ready to calve.

An ox is a bovine that is used for work. Most commonly they are castrated male cattle, but they can be cows, heifers, steers, or even bulls. Cows are mature female bovines that have had a calf; a heifer is a young female bovine that has not yet had a calf.

No, it just means the corpus luteum ruptured releasing the ovary. It has nothing to do with telling if the cow conceived or not.

A heifer should be ready to breed around 15 months. That means she'll be having a calf at 24 months. Regarding weight: heifers should be bred when they're no less than 65% of the mature weight of the cow herd.

The average age is 15 months, but heifers can become pregnant much earlier, even between 6 and 9 months. Typically this is considered too young, as they have not filled out enough in frame and their reproductive organs are not quite ready yet to bear a fetus.

A heifer may start having her first cycle (signs that she's reached puberty) by the time she's 6 months old, but she shouldn't be bred until she's around 15 months old.

Inserting the probe into the vagina would disrupt the natural barrier in the cervix that is supposed to protect the calf. If this barrier is disrupted, the health and life of the fetus could be compromised, and it could be prematurely aborted. You are also very likely to introduce unnecessary foreign bodies, causing infection into the canal and the uterus. Via the rectum maintains that barrier and does not impede the tech or vet's ability to "see" the fetus with the sensitive crystals in the probe.

Yes, but not to get pregnant. She can have false heats during pregnancy, which will cause the bull to renew interest in her, but she won't get bred to have a second calf in addition to the one she's already carrying. Then again, if in fact she is in heat during a time she ''should'' be pregnant, that could mean she's not pregnant but cycling again and getting bred later than you had thought.

As soon as she's been bred by a bull. If she "takes," or the sperm of the bull has successfully fertilized the ovum or egg in her, then it will begin developing into an embryonic then fetal calf.

Anything from mycotoxins in the feed or a toxic plant, to a sexually transmitted disease she may have contracted from the bull. You need to rule out all sorts of options to find out what really caused her to abort a late-term calf. Get a vet to do a necropsy on the calf, if possible, get your feed tested for mycotoxins, and get a fecal and blood test from the cow, to be sure and see what's what.

Not always, my Brown Swiss dairy heifer had that, and it meant that she wasn't coming into heat at the right time (not pregnant)

No. It is possible to detect pregnancy by day 60 to 90 using rectal ultrasonography.

The appropriate period is 60 - 90 days after she has given birth. Some cows may take longer, closer to 120 days, depending on their body condition and type of nutrition they're getting.