Tips, Tricks and Techniques - Adjusting Your Ultrasound Unit to Get the Best Image

ReproScan ultrasounds have easy to use operating systems. These units have been designed so the operator can quickly and easily adjust the settings to improve the image. For most of us, we are concerned with the cow’s uterus and its potential pregnancy.

So, let’s assume we have arrived at a ranch and the cows have been off water, causing their manure to be dry. Yesterday, we ultrasounded a set of cows with juicy manure in a nicely shaded shed and had an excellent image on the monitor! Today, there is no shed; the sun is shining; the wind is blowing; the manure is dry and the image is going to be difficult to see. Welcome to the cattle business!

Moving forward, you can either fight through with a less than ideal image, or you can take a moment to adjust the settings on your BoviScan Curve or ReproScan XTC to get the best image possible in these tough conditions. With your ultrasound unit hanging safely and securely at the chute, and with no cattle in the chute yet:

1. Turn on your ReproScan XTC or BoviScan Curve unit with the Power button
2. Press Menu (a menu will appear in the upper right-hand corner of the screen)
3. Use the + key and increase the Gain to 120 (Gain increases the amplifications of the sound waves – sort of like turning up the volume).
4. Press the Exam key once and watch as the highlighter drops to the Dynamic setting. Lower the Dynamic Range to 60. This makes a higher contrast image with less shades of grey.
5. Press the Exam key twice to highlight Far and increase the Far Gain to 25
6. Press the Exam key until “IP” is highlighted. Decrease the IP (Image Processing) to 1. The scanning area on the monitor will now appear brighter.
7. Press Menu twice and you will be back in active scanning mode.

Now bring a cow into the chute and tell the rancher that the manure is dry and sun is shining so you will have to test the equipment on the first cow or two.

1. Check the first cow with your ultrasound unit. If the image is acceptable, you may wish to save this image as one of the 4 default Exams. To do this, press down the Exam key until a flashing A B C or D appears. Press the + key and move the flashing letter to D for Dry manure.

1. Save the setting here by pressing Exam again – Save Image Yes No will appear. Select Yes and press Exam again. Settings saved. You now have a Dry Manure Setting – D!
2. You can change the depth of scan for this D setting by using the + and – keys once the setting is saved.

2. You can fine tune this dry manure setting by repeating the above procedure and making small adjustments to the settings we mentioned above. You can also change the “Comp” which stands for Compression Curve. This cleans up some of the background noise. The higher the “Comp” setting the better the image but we lose some brightness.

If you have followed these instructions this far, we are very proud of you. We suggest you practice this procedure in your office before having to do this on the spot at a ranch. If you want some more info, you can read your instruction manual or give us a call and we can help you perfect these skills.