For many mid-season lambing flocks, the task of scanning their ewes will take place over the next few weeks.
On the day of scanning, a number of different jobs can be carried out if there is an extra labour unit on the farm – on the day.
The first task that can be carried out is dosing ewes for fluke. If it is a case that ewes are coming off pasture now – especially if the ground is wet – there is a possibility that they have fluke.
Therefore, a dung sample should be taken – so as to identify the correct dose to treat the ewes for fluke with – a week before scanning.
The second task that can be carried out is walking the ewes through a footbath on their way to the scanning trailer. However, this should only be carried out when ewes are set to be housed for the winter and not let out to pasture again.
After this – when the ewes are in the crush – the flock should be body condition scored (BCS), in order to identify any undernourished animals. Furthermore, these ewes can be batched together and offered extra feed to bring them up a BCS of 3.0.
Up next is scanning. Moreover, to improve the accuracy of scanning it is beneficial if the ewe is not fed a few hours prior to scanning.
The final task is to batch the ewes according to how many lambs they are carrying – while also taking into account their BCS.
Scanning
Ewes should be scanned between 80 and 90 days post ram turnout – to achieve accurate results.
However, scanning ewes that are greater than 90 days in-lamb will make it more difficult for the scanner to identify how many lambs the ewe is carrying.
Furthermore, it is best practice to avoid scanning ewes that are less than 40 days in-lamb as this will result in pregnant ewes not being identified and possibly being culled.