Scanning

brownswiss · 30-01-2015 07:30PM

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

A strange thing happened earlier, a sheep scanner rang me back! Week after next hope to get them done.

We get a great service from FRS in Boyle.. Last year I did not book in time and had to opt for private operator. He never turned up ( but they still had lambs )

eire23 · 30-01-2015 07:44PM

brownswiss wrote: »

We get a great service from FRS in Boyle.. Last year I did not book in time and had to opt for private operator. He never turned up ( but they still had lambs )

They offer a great service, John is deadly at it. No wild panic with him but still flies through them.

rangler1 · 30-01-2015 08:15PM

Just when you thought you have everything right,
First bunch of ewes, mainly texel not known for prolificacy, scanned 1.95.
Second bunch, mainly Lleyn, same management, same everything, due a fortnight later scanned 1.65.
A bit disappointed...... 60 less lambs in one bunch than the other

Connemara Farmer · 30-01-2015 08:34PM

brownswiss wrote: »

We get a great service from FRS in Boyle.. Last year I did not book in time and had to opt for private operator. He never turned up ( but they still had lambs )

Never had mine scanned before, so am looking forward to seeing the process more so than the results. It will be very handy to know who's carrying twins or empty, I have one in mind who got tipped that I have a suspicion won't have a lamb.

razor8 · 30-01-2015 08:37PM

rangler1 wrote: »

Just when you thought you have everything right,
First bunch of ewes, mainly texel not known for prolificacy, scanned 1.95.
Second bunch, mainly Lleyn, same management, same everything, due a fortnight later scanned 1.65.
A bit disappointed...... 60 less lambs in one bunch than the other

That's awful strange to be such a difference, same scanner?

Nekarsulm · 30-01-2015 08:41PM

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

Never had mine scanned before, so am looking forward to seeing the process more so than the results. It will be very handy to know who's carrying twins or empty, I have one in mind who got tipped that I have a suspicion won't have a lamb.

You won't have time to watch the process, you will be too busy keeping the sheep supplied to the scanning crush to be standing idle

Connemara Farmer · 30-01-2015 08:58PM

Nekarsulm wrote: »

You won't have time to watch the process, you will be too busy keeping the sheep supplied to the scanning crush to be standing idle

I'll multitask :cool:

Cran · 30-01-2015 11:53PM

Scanning first bunch here tomorrow, remainder later in the week. Be interesting to see how they go now

brownswiss · 30-01-2015 11:56PM

rangler1 wrote: »

Just when you thought you have everything right,
First bunch of ewes, mainly texel not known for prolificacy, scanned 1.95.
Second bunch, mainly Lleyn, same management, same everything, due a fortnight later scanned 1.65.
A bit disappointed...... 60 less lambs in one bunch than the other

............What dates are both bunches due to start. An old sheep farmer claimed that if sheep were let to the ram in November they would have less lams than if the ram was turned out in October... Hope he was wrong as I will have April lambing this year

rangler1 · 31-01-2015 09:00AM

brownswiss wrote: »

............What dates are both bunches due to start. An old sheep farmer claimed that if sheep were let to the ram in November they would have less lams than if the ram was turned out in October... Hope he was wrong as I will have April lambing this year

Same scanner on both occasions, First batch due the 1st march and second due the 15th, second batch are younger sheep but more Lleyn which should be more prolific,....them's the breaks I suppose.
Yea, it's well proven that the later you go with lambing the smaller the crop

Cran · 31-01-2015 12:27PM

Just finished scanning first two batches here

Empty 13
Singles 122
Twins 243
Triplets 26
Quads 1

Gives rate of 1.75 and 1.81 without empties. Bit disappointed with empties, seems to been an issue with 60 ewes on out farm for some reason...rest to be done end of the week

Western Pomise · 31-01-2015 02:14PM

Ewes due to start lambing from Paddys Day, usually scan around Jan 5th but scanner had illness issues in his family so only getting main bunch scanned tomorrow and a bunch of 20 on an outfarm on 10th Feb.They usually lamb fairly compact in two weeks.

Will this later scan affect accuracy much of scan?

brownswiss · 31-01-2015 08:28PM

Cran wrote: »

Just finished scanning first two batches here

Empty 13
Singles 122
Twins 243
Triplets 26
Quads 1

Gives rate of 1.75 and 1.81 without empties. Bit disappointed with empties, seems to been an issue with 60 ewes on out farm for some reason...rest to be done end of the week

Do any of you record the ewes having singles to see if they do it again the next year. In general when you see a good scanning rate like above I wonder does it actually have anything to do with breeding or feeding. Presume the ewes scanned with singles were managed the same as the rest.

Do you think that when a farmer tries to increase the scanning rate by introducing breeds like Belclare that he / she also improves management , so it is difficult to know the source of the increased scanning rate. Having said that we have had a few too many multiple births from the Belclare . All twins would be nice..

brownswiss · 31-01-2015 08:32PM

Western Pomise wrote: »

Ewes due to start lambing from Paddys Day, usually scan around Jan 5th but scanner had illness issues in his family so only getting main bunch scanned tomorrow and a bunch of 20 on an outfarm on 10th Feb.They usually lamb fairly compact in two weeks.

Will this later scan affect accuracy much of scan?

.

I will be interested to see replies to this. I think I would not scan that close to lambing but I am no expert

Cran · 31-01-2015 08:35PM

brownswiss wrote: »

.

I will be interested to see replies to this. I think I would not scan that close to lambing but I am no expert

Not sure I'd bother with the ones on 10th feb tbh, bit late think I'd take the chance

Cran · 31-01-2015 08:42PM

brownswiss wrote: »

Do any of you record the ewes having singles to see if they do it again the next year. In general when you see a good scanning rate like above I wonder does it actually have anything to do with breeding or feeding. Presume the ewes scanned with singles were managed the same as the rest.

Do you think that when a farmer tries to increase the scanning rate by introducing breeds like Belclare that he / she also improves management , so it is difficult to know the source of the increased scanning rate. Having said that we have had a few too many multiple births from the Belclare . All twins would be nice..

All treated the same, I d love to get a scanner with EID reader then transfer into my flock records. Just not possible read them again with the numbers. Above are majority mules and what I love with them over Belclare is I get higher % twins, less triplets, same number of singles & never a quad (quad above is a pure Lleyn). I do track the pedigrees and defo trend in number of lambs ewe has year on year, and her daughters.
Looking forward to Friday as first Lleyn cross mules Hoggets will be scanned.

razor8 · 31-01-2015 09:35PM

Have been doing it 10 years or so, had a excel sheet with all the ewes tags listed, I used right down the number scanned and when they lambed and whether any bother or not, some years records better than others. Had ewes that had singles ever year but I resisted selling as I was building up numbers and used to get most fostered with a triplet
Bought TGM software a few ago and really pleased with it, makes things a lot simpler for tracking crops.

Western Pomise · 31-01-2015 10:49PM

Cran wrote: »

Not sure I'd bother with the ones on 10th feb tbh, bit late think I'd take the chance

Thought myself it might be a bit close for that bunch,
.....however with main bunch tomorrow (100 ewes)
Will accuracy be affected much?,most would be in lamb since 16th Oct on hopefully....basically they are being scanned a month closer to lambing than usual.
Thanks for any replies.

brownswiss · 31-01-2015 11:24PM

Western Pomise wrote: »

Thought myself it might be a bit close for that bunch,
.....however with main bunch tomorrow (100 ewes)
Will accuracy be affected much?,most would be in lamb since 16th Oct on hopefully....basically they are being scanned a month closer to lambing than usual.
Thanks for any replies.

..

I would have thought it was too late from a stress point of view as well as accuracy but I was on another forum and a guy is even scanning to 120 days. The couple of times that I had a few early ewes in the bunch the scanner would not give a guarantee of accuracy .

The only issues I have had with scanning were when I failed to get my usual guy. Then accuracy & poor quality marker/ spray were the issues

Western Pomise · 31-01-2015 11:47PM

brownswiss wrote: »

..

I would have thought it was too late from a stress point of view as well as accuracy but I was on another forum and a guy is even scanning to 120 days. The couple of times that I had a few early ewes in the bunch the scanner would not give a guarantee of accuracy .

The only issues I have had with scanning were when I failed to get my usual guy. Then accuracy & poor quality marker/ spray were the issues

The few tipped the day rams went out would be 108 days in lamb if they held,sure will know when lambs start dropping of it was accurate.
From stress perspective the ewes will be handled as little as possible and know the run to pen for scanning.

premier10 · 01-02-2015 01:21AM

When i scanned this year, i had a few ewes gone over 100 days, up to 111 days, so far he has been 100% accurate with lambing, although I'm waiting on one ewe he marked as double with dot as if three in there, due to pop shortly but think he could be right anyway

Bleating Lamb · 01-02-2015 12:22PM

IMO the accuracy and skill of your scanner is most important thing,if you think about it from what you say the majority of your ewes will only be around 100 days on avg so you should be fine,ideally around 90 days is the best time.A good scanner will still pick them up pretty accurately. As for the ones in Feb if its to suit a feeding regime I would do them as he will still be able to say of they have doubles in them.Scanning is no more stressful than moving on a trailer if done carefully.

Western Pomise · 01-02-2015 04:22PM

Got 100 ewes scanned today, v happy with result,
Basically as scan was really a month late scanner felt with around 20 sheep all he could say was that they were in lamb but mentioned that 3 or 4 could have triplets.Rest he was quite happy with accuracy of scan.

20-def in lamb but unsure of nos( prob a few trips there)
53 set twins
23 singles
1 set triplets
3 empties
Scanner says a lot of them will lamb within 2 wks of start.
V happy with only 3 dry,scanner says we can scan other 20 as at least we will know if they are in lamb and stress will be ok.

brownswiss · 01-02-2015 10:06PM

Great it went well. Nice to have only 3 empty

Western Pomise · 01-02-2015 11:07PM

brownswiss wrote: »

Great it went well. Nice to have only 3 empty

Yeah,thanks,and of the 20 that were too long gone in lamb the scanner felt a good few had at least 2.
Last yr I think there were 8 or 9 scanned dry,1 had a late lamb afterwards.
Around 9 or 10 of the definite singles are Hoggets,one lamb is plenty for them.

Cran · 06-02-2015 07:15PM

Scanned remainder today 121 lleyn x mule hoggets, 3 empties only 3 triplets and scan of 1.73. Really happy with this..
Lambing ewe lambs here for first time and scanned 60 April born Lleyn x Mules lambs, 20 empties giving a scan of 0.88 which is about 1.33 without empties, not sure if this is good. What would be regarded as good scan for ewe lambs?

paddysdream · 08-02-2015 02:44PM

Cran wrote: »

Scanned remainder today 121 lleyn x mule hoggets, 3 empties only 3 triplets and scan of 1.73. Really happy with this..
Lambing ewe lambs here for first time and scanned 60 April born Lleyn x Mules lambs, 20 empties giving a scan of 0.88 which is about 1.33 without empties, not sure if this is good. What would be regarded as good scan for ewe lambs?

Lot of empties but April born could mean they were a little young/light.Always felt scan rate of 1 was ideal for ewe lambs ie each with a single.Most ewe lambs will rear 2 but its much harder on them than on hoggets.

Connemara Farmer · 11-02-2015 08:51PM

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

A strange thing happened earlier, a sheep scanner rang me back! Week after next hope to get them done.

Guess who isn't returning my calls :rolleyes:

What ever it was I did in a past life I hope I really enjoyed it

Farrell · 11-02-2015 10:02PM

Connemara Farmer wrote: »

Guess who isn't returning my calls :rolleyes:

What ever it was I did in a past life I hope I really enjoyed it

Sadly I must of been as bad as you!
We pay straight away, but are small, & you're left on the long finger & always chasing

Connemara Farmer · 11-02-2015 10:07PM

Farrell wrote: »

Sadly I must of been as bad as you!
We pay straight away, but are small, & you're left on the long finger & always chasing

He just text me back there, next week maybe, ram was out on the 4th November, so 100 days tomorrow, how long is too long? A lad would get pissed off with this craic.

Scanning

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