How have scans gone in general for those who were lambing early or have scanned recently compared to recent years?
I am getting mine scanned at the weekend,will report in after.
Scanning next weekend
Have scanned here, just under 2 in the adults and 1.3 in the ewe lambs, one barren in 60 adult ewes and one barren in 21 ewe lambs..... happy out
Middling enough scan here this year with both the January and March lambing ewes .
Haven't got exact figures but will look them up .Know earlies scanned about 1.7 and main flock were a bit less .Poor enough compared to last few years but weather was very warm when rams in plus grass not as plentiful for flushing as other years .
Few more empties than normal along with a fair few singles .
Talking to a few around here and the same story in general ,no disasters but nobody over excited either .
March lambing here
(just over 1.9)78 ewes
12 triplets 49 twins
15 singles 2 empty
happy enough with that
scanned 1.8 last year
Reduced numbers here this year.
60 ewes, 15 triplets 29 twins 13 singles 3 empty.
11 ewe lambs, 6 singles, 4 twins, 1 empty.
Disappointed with the empty ewes.
Good bit of fostering to be done but I think a lot of the singles are early going by the raddle. The teat buckets will be out!
What type of ewes have you
Suffolk x Belclare x Texel mostly. Just looking at them this evening. I think most of the singles have very little Belclare in them.
Normal scan here this year. Overall 1.87 in ewes 1.98 litter size
Ewe lambs 1.34 litters size 1.49
Got sheep done on Saturday, great scan result,lambing from St Paddys day with scanner saying most will lamb around April 1st....with good compact pattern.
64 ewes scanned.
2 empty
10 singles
46 twins
6 triplets
The 2 empty might possibly be in lamb yet as well as ram was still with them till mid December.
So 1.87 from all ewes to ram and 1.93 from in lamb ewes to ram.
Hill ewes on lowland ground, mix of hoggs and 2 year old ewes, 1.37 from all ewes and 1.5 from in lamb ewes to ram, 5 empty, (3 ewes and 2 hoggs), 26 single and 26 doubles.
Scanned on 18th.
All Blackie hill ewes. Weather was too good at tupping time for blackfaced ewes, way too mild which didn't help.
1.69%
3 empty
110 twins
7 triplets (includes my only mule ewe)
55 singles
10 Dorset X Ewe lambs
1 twin
2 singles
7 empty
These were put to a young ram lamb I bought just to see if he would work, not bothered that they didn't go in lamb.
Have the shed ready to put them in, but I'm leaving the twins and singles out as the weather is way too good to be housing ewes. They're wasting a bit more silage than I'd like but no straw being used is the upside. Housed triplets and some broken mouthed ewes carrying singles and twins. Will house the twins when they start to get meal.
IS that an exceptionally good scan for blackie hill ewes? I'm relatively new to this so always open to learn more, i was a bit disappointed with my number of empties, I think they may have been in in too good condition, you said the weather was too mild?
It's better to put an older ram with ewe lambs
It would be a decent scan, not exceptional by any means, I'd usually like to try and hit around 1.75% with them, with few triplets but there were 30 hoggets in them that scanned a high percentage of singles. Blackie ewes like it a bit rougher at tupping time, when there's plenty of rain and it's miserable weather.
1.57% with one empty who repeated late.
Slightly dissapointed as i had 200% last year but i think my ewes were in better condition going to the ram last yr.
Lambing around Patrick's day cut back in no. this year
1 empty
25 single
36 twins
2 triplets
Had a really bad scanning. 7o% singles. Out of 100 ewes. Never saw anything like it. Ewes all in good grass going to ram. 3 rams.
mixture of mature ewes and Hoggets.
Were they on good grass for two mths before as well, Most ewes are condition score three after rearing lambs, they need to be near condition score four at mating they need ten weeks good grass to put on one condition score, most ewes need that extra condition score after rearing lambs.
Get them blood tested for minerals, it could be a problem, did you give them a mineral bolus two or three weeks pre mating
Had something similar only had 10 going to the ram but 5 empty. Disappointed not a great start to sheep farming . Though they were in good condition going to the ram had been on good grass and got a mineral dose a few weeks prior to mating. Scanner said its been a bad year with alot of emptys
Yea they got a mineral dose 3 weeks before going to the ram and were on good grass and good condition going to ram.
tea will get them blood tested as there is obvious something missing.
normally would have have a scan of 1.8 to 1.9 so this is the first year had something like this . Every year brings a new challenge.
I don't think mineral doses are slow release. Cobalt in a dose will only work for a fortnight if that's your problem. Cobalt deficiency is a problem here so always have to use a slow release bolus every six mths or dose with Cobalt every fortnight/ three weeks. It won't stay in the system very long
What breeds have you?
All lowland mixture. Quite a lot or llyen in the older ones and more Suffol cross in the younger ones
If they were scanning near two as a flock for the last couple years you should at least do some blood tests.
Yea will do. That’s the plan.
