Scanning

Conmaicne Mara

I've a number for a guy - yes, I am going to ring, I know I'll get told to

I'll only have 30 ewes to scan, do lads bother stirring out to scan that few? Want to identify the twins to bring them in earlier and keep a closer eye thanks to the fox cleaning me out this Spring. What would a normal rate be, would there be a call out charge too

Farrell

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

I've a number for a guy - yes, I am going to ring, I know I'll get told to

I'll only have 30 ewes to scan, do lads bother stirring out to scan that few? Want to identify the twins to bring them in earlier and keep a closer eye thanks to the fox cleaning me out this Spring. What would a normal rate be, would there be a call out charge too

I got 32 scanned last year, cost €50. Have only 9 this year, supposed to be coming soon, I'm thinking same price

Conmaicne Mara

Farrell wrote: »

I got 32 scanned last year, cost €50. Have only 9 this year, supposed to be coming soon, I'm thinking same price

Oh good, that's not bad money at all. Was he accurate? The guy I got a number for is supposed to be the business.

Farrell

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Oh good, that's not bad money at all. Was he accurate? The guy I got a number for is supposed to be the business.

He was out on a few. He was only a subby cos rush was on. Told a good few complaints on that fellow. Regular guy supposed to be real deal. Fingers crossed

rancher

Farrell wrote: »

He was out on a few. He was only a subby cos rush was on. Told a good few complaints on that fellow. Regular guy supposed to be real deal. Fingers crossed

Inaccurate scanning is a disaster, had a new guy one year and got a lot of trouble with Twin lamb disease in '' scanned singles''. The guy I have now would be 100% right on singles and 99% right on multiples, so management now includes being aware of the doubles and if any are losing weight quicker than the rest, put them in with the triplets and most of the time it will be a triplet, but would only have 4 or 5 of those

Farrell

True, had 2 Trips (1 scanned single & other twins), everything worked out.
It's nice to have accurate, so you can manage to avoid trouble (where possible).
I try to scan all (Cows & Ewes), means you can sell / Feed empties too.

Bleating Lamb

Very annoying when you have an inaccurate scan,same happened us last year with one bunch of around 40 ewes,usual scanner sent a 'deputy'....first year ever scanning.....everyone has to start somewhere but this lad spent more time talking SH*** than looking at screen,of all ewes he had marked for twins around ten lambed singles and had been fed extra....rest marked for twins lambed ok
Point was though he only had around 50% accuracy overall.....the main scanner WILL be coming this year or will lose job;)

razor8

id be looking for money back at that going

premier10

Got the ewes scanned today. Father of a good friend did them. pretty ucking useless, he could only tell single, double, empty. even at that any ewes that were 90 - 95 days by my dates he hadnt a ucking clue. 2 ewes in particular that were bought in were clearly inlamb before i got them as they are starting to slightly spring and are easily visible as heavy inlamb, he put them down as empty. I know it's gets harder to identify the number of lambs as time goes on, but if there inlamb at least say there is one in there.

€ 70 for 34 ewes and i'm no wiser. really pee'd about it, so much for giving a mate a turn. Never again.
:mad:

Conmaicne Mara

Rang the guy yesterday, no bother doing mine, but call him again nearer the time. Am looking forward to it now TBH.

Mac Taylor

Have 27 to scan myself. Never scanned before. Must give the scanner a call. Have cows to scan aswell so hopefully he'll do a deal!!

Lano Lynn

Mac Taylor wrote: »

Have 27 to scan myself. Never scanned before. Must give the scanner a call. Have cows to scan aswell so hopefully he'll do a deal!!

scanning is the best value for money I get every year. I get donegal farm relief unbelievably accurate.:)
saveing feed,better triplets & fostering management,early sale of barren ewes, all bonuses
have seen the other variety elsewhere ,a waste of time.
it is only fair to have you sheep prepared properly,accurate date for relesae of the ram & ewes fasted on the day.
so if your scanner is good don't begrudge them a few quid they have got to live too.....
if they are bad let them and everyone else know:mad:

Conmaicne Mara

Lano Lynn wrote: »

ewes fasted on the day.

Never heard of this, is it common? Must ask the fella I want to scan them, he didn't say.

eire23

Lano Lynn wrote: »

scanning is the best value for money I get every year. I get donegal farm relief unbelievably accurate.:)
saveing feed,better triplets & fostering management,early sale of barren ewes, all bonuses
have seen the other variety elsewhere ,a waste of time.
it is only fair to have you sheep prepared properly,accurate date for relesae of the ram & ewes fasted on the day.
so if your scanner is good don't begrudge them a few quid they have got to live too.....
if they are bad let them and everyone else know:mad:

Got the roscommon farm relief to do ours last year. Was our first time getting them and he was 100% accurate, it makes life fierce easy for the reasons ya mentioned above. Scanning the first lot on the 23rd of this month so looking forward to that.
Never heard about fasting the ewes either?

Farrell

eire23 wrote: »

Got the roscommon farm relief to do ours last year. Was our first time getting them and he was 100% accurate, it makes life fierce easy for the reasons ya mentioned above. Scanning the first lot on the 23rd of this month so looking forward to that.
Never heard about fasting the ewes either?

Scanned last week, put them in the night before, but gave a small bit of hay. Scanner was there first thing, best results fasting, hay blots them. Guess put them in night before fasting for best results

razor8

my scanner says 3 or 4 hours fasting is enough, just dont be mealing them or putting in a new bale before he/she arrives

one year 30 went awol morning of scanning on some winterage, got them before he left and he was still 100%.

Conmaicne Mara

Most of mine will be on the hill so they'll get neither feeding nor fasting.

tabby aspreme

Lad who scans for me used to go to New Zealand to scan, and sheep would always be fasted for 12 hours before scanning out there, he says it helps but he doesn't think its necessary and he is very accurate

Nekarsulm

Scanned today, had them closed up last night, but at some stage in the night, they escaped again:rolleyes:
Scanner ran through 75 in less than an hour. Only 1 empty. He has a great system of marking them, one dot or two (or 3 if trips). the nearer to the tail he put the dots, the nearer to lambing.

He reckons to be busy from now till March, usually scans 40,000 sheep in this time frame.
80 Euro, was pleasantly surprised.

grassroot1

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Scanned today, had them closed up last night, but at some stage in the night, they escaped again:rolleyes:
Scanner ran through 75 in less than an hour. Only 1 empty. He has a great system of marking them, one dot or two (or 3 if trips). the nearer to the tail he put the dots, the nearer to lambing.

He reckons to be busy from now till March, usually scans 40,000 sheep in this time frame.
80 Euro, was pleasantly surprised.

go on spill the beans what"s the % . when we scan we mark singles on shoulder, twins get no mark, triplets on tail and empty ewes on head

Dickie10

Kiwi does ours last 3 years 99% accurate, 80cent a ewe and I have 82 to do. id say this is good value. all his own markers gates, leads etc. were doing it Thursday. he puts 1 blue dot for single, nothing for doubles, a circle for empty, and a 3 for triplets. if its very early or late he puts an L or an E on side in red.this way hes not matking every ewe but maybe just a third

Farrell

Nekarsulm wrote: »

He has a great system of marking them, one dot or two (or 3 if trips). the nearer to the tail he put the dots, the nearer to lambing.

It seams to be the same method with most scanners, it allows for easier/better management

foxylock

Howya lads can anyone recommend a good scanner. Tipperary area, need to get them done shortly and never scanned before. Thanks

hedgecutting eddie

scanned my mid feb ewes yes and didnt go well and i never seen them look as in good condition 3 empties
33 singles
48 doubles
6 triplets

hedgecutting eddie

foxylock wrote: »

Howya lads can anyone recommend a good scanner. Tipperary area, need to get them done shortly and never scanned before. Thanks

kieran byrne 087 2653439 hes very good never any mistakes

paddysdream

The first ones scanned;

3 empty
42 singles
48 doubles
9 triples

Thats 1.65 so very happy with it.Those are lambing in early to mid January.
Scanning the main crop around Christmas and the hoggets/ewe lambs in late January.

In that first lot had a good few older ewes so would be expecting them to scan a decent crop even after the hard year they had here(yes some of us had very little grass due to the dry year.In fact will prob. need to buy a little hay/silage this year whilst I sold in the region of 300 surplus bales the previous year.Roll on another wet summer!)).

premier10

Paddy,

When did you scan if you lambing in mid/Late Jan?
I'm due to start lambing around mid/emd jan and my scanner could'nt figure out any of the early ewes 3 weeks ago!

rancher

razor8 wrote: »

my scanner says 3 or 4 hours fasting is enough, just dont be mealing them or putting in a new bale before he/she arrives

one year 30 went awol morning of scanning on some winterage, got them before he left and he was still 100%.

An experienced scanner will scan them full, but they say it takes longer, our scanner prefers them fasted but coming from a field that they have been on a while is no problem, he doesn't like if they're put on a fresh paddock a few hours before ( to have them handy) or put in on a fresh bed of straw or someone gives them hay.
Over 100 days he finds hard, but he's good enough, its usually his fault if they're done late as I book him early

Western Pomise

hedgecutting eddie wrote: »

scanned my mid feb ewes yes and didnt go well and i never seen them look as in good condition 3 empties
33 singles
48 doubles
6 triplets

Jaysus Eddie yer hard pleased;)...that's a good enough result.....Have heard lot of early lambing flocks are having poor enough returns from scans.

paddysdream

Scanned the main bunch this morning.

Rams went in the 30th of September.

Scanned 527 lambs from 326 ewes.Works out at 1.61 per ewe.Not a great result but all things considered it could have been worse.Sheep had a tough year re. grass plus nearly 200 of those are first or second crop ewes.

At that result it would be very difficult to achieve anywhere near 1.5 lambs sold per ewe.

First time they were all handled since October and surprised with their condition.The vast majority were in very good order.A few thin ones as always but thats to be expected as they are run as one large group up to this stage.

Results were;

Dry;7
Singles;134
Doubles;162
Trebles;23

Just the few ewe lambs that went to the ram left to scan.Ran most of the ewe lambs dry this year as didnt think they had the size in late October.

razor8

paddysdream wrote: »

Scanned the main bunch this morning.

Rams went in the 30th of September.

Scanned 527 lambs from 326 ewes.Works out at 1.61 per ewe.Not a great result but all things considered it could have been worse.Sheep had a tough year re. grass plus nearly 200 of those are first or second crop ewes.

At that result it would be very difficult to achieve anywhere near 1.5 lambs sold per ewe.

First time they were all handled since October and surprised with their condition.The vast majority were in very good order.A few thin ones as always but thats to be expected as they are run as one large group up to this stage.

Results were;

Dry;7
Singles;134
Doubles;162
Trebles;23

Just the few ewe lambs that went to the ram left to scan.Ran most of the ewe lambs dry this year as didnt think they had the size in late October.

Out of interest what breeds do you keep? Not scanning here for a few weeks yet

Bleating Lamb

That's a decent result because seemingly crops are down this year on scanning. So far.....strange as ewes got so much sun in Summer but to be fair to them they had a brutally tough Spring.

paddysdream

razor8 wrote: »

Out of interest what breeds do you keep? Not scanning here for a few weeks yet

The breeding would be prob;
25% or so what people call a Borris type ewe ie offspring of a suffolk ram and a cheviot ewe which gives a speckled type ewe.(usually bought in as hoggets).
Some of my own homebred texel crosses from these look very similar.

65% texel cross ewes out of the above (homebred).

The rest are mainly black suffolk type ewes plus a few char cross ewes that are kept in a moment of weakness every year.

Find that the texel cross,whilst maybe not giving a wonderful crop of lambs,will lamb down with plenty of milk,have lambs that are strong at birth and keep in good order for a fair few years.Also the lambs kill out and grade pretty well.Bit of a sore point re.the grading as whats the point in having 60% plus u grade lambs when people get the same for r grade ones?

Hoggets are bought in for two reasons;to make up numbers if insufficient lambs suitable for replacements and secondly to bring a little genetic mix as too much of any one thing may not be the best.

Find the few char. cross ewes grand.Maybe not the best sheep if they get a setback ie if they go thin much harder to put flesh back on them plus dont last as long as ewes ie culled at a younger age.Can be a good bit wilder than the rest too!Usually have a good crop though and rear very good and easily finished lambs.

Rams are mainly texel and charollais with a couple of suffolk .Swore a few years ago never to buy a black ram again as found each and every one of them to be as soft as sh**e but was tempted a couple of years ago!These turned out ok and give good lambs but the usual suffolk complaint of dirty backends with the lambs.

Conmaicne Mara

Only heard of the Borris ewe this year. Man near me had a few Borris ewes he sold at the mart for €70. His stock most definitely get no mollycoddling, it's survival of the fittest there. I bought lambs from him when I started out and they did fantastic for me given the bit of care.

razor8

paddysdream wrote: »

The breeding would be prob;
25% or so what people call a Borris type ewe ie offspring of a suffolk ram and a cheviot ewe which gives a speckled type ewe.(usually bought in as hoggets).
Some of my own homebred texel crosses from these look very similar.

65% texel cross ewes out of the above (homebred).

The rest are mainly black suffolk type ewes plus a few char cross ewes that are kept in a moment of weakness every year.

Find that the texel cross,whilst maybe not giving a wonderful crop of lambs,will lamb down with plenty of milk,have lambs that are strong at birth and keep in good order for a fair few years.Also the lambs kill out and grade pretty well.Bit of a sore point re.the grading as whats the point in having 60% plus u grade lambs when people get the same for r grade ones?

Hoggets are bought in for two reasons;to make up numbers if insufficient lambs suitable for replacements and secondly to bring a little genetic mix as too much of any one thing may not be the best.

Find the few char. cross ewes grand.Maybe not the best sheep if they get a setback ie if they go thin much harder to put flesh back on them plus dont last as long as ewes ie culled at a younger age.Can be a good bit wilder than the rest too!Usually have a good crop though and rear very good and easily finished lambs.

Rams are mainly texel and charollais with a couple of suffolk .Swore a few years ago never to buy a black ram again as found each and every one of them to be as soft as sh**e but was tempted a couple of years ago!These turned out ok and give good lambs but the usual suffolk complaint of dirty backends with the lambs.

Detailed reply paddy! I keep some borris ewes too,I bought them in tullow a few years ago and they consistently scan 1.6/1,7, would be there biggest fault. They rear a very shapely lamb but just not enough of them and on a bad year I find they go dry too quick unlike my mules
I keep Suffolk and char rams and find the Suffolk dirtier but still grow well and finish well if dosing proberly. In time I think I will be moving to more charlaois and maybe a texel to breed a few replacements off the mules

eire23

Scanned the early lambers today, they worked out at 2.1.
49 ewes,
triplets,11
twins, 32
singles,6

Didnt flush them this year so happy with them figures

razor8

eire23 wrote: »

Scanned the early lambers today, they worked out at 2.1.
49 ewes,
triplets,11
twins, 32
singles,6

Didnt flush them this year so happy with them figures

Great scan, again same question as paddy what breeds to you have?

eire23

razor8 wrote: »

Great scan, again same question as paddy what breeds to you have?

Their all purebred lleyns put to a lleyn ram. Had 20 last year and ended up with 9 sets of triplets so decided this year not to flush them so im happy with the result. Hopefully now their will be plenty of ewe lambs!

razor8

eire23 wrote: »

Scanned the early lambers today, they worked out at 2.1.
49 ewes,
triplets,11
twins, 32
singles,6

Didnt flush them this year so happy with them figures

Good job you didn't flush. If ya get them all to market you'll be singing!

eire23

razor8 wrote: »

Good job you didn't flush. If ya get them all to market you'll be singing!

True enough, long way to go till then though. The Scanner was saying that most flocks are scanning very well.

Farrell

eire23 wrote: »

Scanned the early lambers today, they worked out at 2.1.
49 ewes,
triplets,11
twins, 32
singles,6

Didnt flush them this year so happy with them figures

They're fantastic figures.
Would you try putting lambs from the trips onto the singles, or let the ewes try to feed all 3?

eire23

Farrell wrote: »

They're fantastic figures.
Would you try putting lambs from the trips onto the singles, or let the ewes try to feed all 3?

no ewe will be left with 3, and with a bit of luck the triplets will lamb before the singles. Doesnt always happen like that though

Farrell

eire23 wrote: »

no ewe will be left with 3, and with a bit of luck the triplets will lamb before the singles. Doesnt always happen like that though

Try that too, but some only have 2 lambs per ewe & rest as fostered or pets.
When you lambing?

sea12

eire23 wrote: »

Scanned the early lambers today, they worked out at 2.1.
49 ewes,
triplets,11
twins, 32
singles,6

Didnt flush them this year so happy with them figures

That's good going. How many rams did u have out with them.

eire23

sea12 wrote: »

That's good going. How many rams did u have out with them.

One ram with them and i would easily let another 10 with him if i had to.

sea12

eire23 wrote: »

One ram with them and i would easily let another 10 with him if i had to.

Was he able to distinguish between what cycles they were in.?
You'd be happy with those numbers if u had them on the ground.

AnFeirmeoir

Great figures.

AnFeirmeoir

What age were those ewes ? They must have been mature. In general what age do ye think is most prolific? 3rd crop ?

J.O. Farmer

eire23 wrote: »

One ram with them and i would easily let another 10 with him if i had to.

That was a little bit risky. If anything went wrong with the ram you could be scanning all zeros.
Past performance is no guarantee of future performance. I think you got the ratio of ewes to ram about right though at almost 50:1.

eire23

AnFeirmeoir wrote: »

What age were those ewes ? They must have been mature. In general what age do ye think is most prolific? 3rd crop ?

30 of them were hoggets, the rest were 3 year olds. Four of the triplets were hoggets. Not sure about the most prolific, i suppose 2nd and 3rd crop?

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

That was a little bit risky. If anything went wrong with the ram you could be scanning all zeros.
Past performance is no guarantee of future performance. I think you got the ratio of ewes to ram about right though at almost 50:1.

I wouldnt think its to risky meself, but you could be right? If he started showing a high number of repeats i would just take him away. As it was he had two repeats out of the lot

J.O. Farmer

I wouldnt think its to risky meself, but you could be right? If he started showing a high number of repeats i would just take him away. As it was he had two repeats out of the lot[/quote]

He's fine to tip that number of ewes but you do need to watch repeats closely because it only takes a bit of an infection a few weeks before tipping and a temperature increase and he could be firing blanks.
It's just safer to have a backup because if he stops working you end up with no lambs and therefore most of your output gone.