The best time to scan cows is approximately 30 days after the last cow in the herd has been served, according to most recommendations.

Suckler herds that finished breeding in early July should have their last calves hitting the ground in mid-April next year and therefore should look at scanning their herds in the coming week or so.

Most scanning technicians will agree that approximately 30 days after breeding is completed is the best time to scan cows as a general rule of thumb.

Any earlier or much later than this can make it more difficult to pick up very early or very late pregnancies within the herd.

The most obvious benefit of scanning cows is to allow suckler farmers to identify which of their cows are not in calf. These cows can then be either drafted for culling or fattened on further as cull cows.

Where winter feed supplies are a concern, selling these empty cows in a timely manner will reduce feed requirements.

On highly stocked farms, selling cull cows early can help to reduce the overall organic Nitrogen produced on the farm.

Nutritional requirements

As well as getting a clearer picture of what cows are not in-calf, scanning will help farmers to predicting expected calving dates of their cows.

This is important when it comes to managing cows' nutritional requirements over the winter.

Late-calving cows can be restricted on feed to stop them getting over fat.

Thinner cows, in-calf heifers or cows carrying twins (usually detected at scanning time providing cows are not more than 12 -14 weeks in calf) can be taken out and given priority access to better-quality silage or additional feed if necessary.

When farmers have a clearer picture of the number of weeks that cows are in-calf, it can also be beneficial for vaccination timing and help farmers to plan come calving season 2027.