Back in the 80s as a young veterinarian, I was confronted several times by successful ranchers that said that pregnancy testing mature beef cows did not pay. These comments went against everything that I had been taught in veterinary school. And of course, I wanted their pregnancy testing business. I spent countless hours doing partial budgets on keeping open cows over the winter and marketing them in the spring after calving season ended. I have to admit that there was a positive margin for keeping that open cow around on many of these low input ranches. But, there was usually a better margin if the open cows and late calving cows were detected earlier and replaced with pregnant cows or heifers. This allowed the ranch to be fully stocked for winter with pregnant cows and pregnant heifers. Why couldn’t I get these ranchers to see my point of view? I was up against tradition, inadequate facilities, and peer pressure. Until one day…