Scanning

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.

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 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 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 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 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 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.

Great figures.

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.

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.

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Scanned today......got away before the brutal weather arrived.
Happy with result, scanned 59 ewes,of which around 15 were dry lambs last yr.
25 Singles
28 Twins
3. Triplets
3 Dry. Ram there till fortnight ago so might get a late lamb or two.

What breeds were you scanning out of curiosity?

Cran wrote: »

Was wondering would a scanner normally scan them in the field if provided with power and good handling unit? Have ewes in the house and don't want to move them??

Id imagine he would have no problem with it once the sheep are there and coming to him as quick as he can scan them. The fella that comes here said he does some outside and it dosent bother him.