With scanning well underway for mid-season lambing flocks, Agriland caught up with bovine ultrasound technician, Kieran McGee, to see what is happening on the ground.
Speaking to Agriland, Kieran first spoke about the scanning results from early lambing flocks and said that they were back on 2020.
“Scanning results on early-lambing flocks were back on 2020 by about 0.2-0.3%,” he said.
“Farmers were putting it down to the strong grass year in 2021 which saw ewes maybe in too good of a condition come breeding.
“Farmers that sponged ewes got on well and got good scanning results, it was more the farmers that let their rams out early and where ewes were in probably that bit too good of condition that saw results back on the previous year.”
Moving onto the mid-season flocks, Kieran said that scans have been much the same or have seen an increase or a slight decrease on 2021, with scans up particularly on farms that traditionally wouldn’t be in great grass-growing areas.
He added: “We are in the heart of the mid-season scanning now with another two or three weeks of it yet to go.
“Results for mid-season flocks have been on par or up on 2021 levels for many farmers, with farms that generally wouldn’t be classed as great grass-growing areas witnessing very good scans.
“Just with the [way the] year 2021 was for grass growth, [in the] areas of poorer ground ewes seem to have benefitted hugely from that extra grass grown and it is coming to fruition now with the results.
“These flocks in tougher grass growing areas haven’t seen massive increases in their scans but have increased to sustainable levels, which is great to see but importantly it’s not too crazy that farmers would be having too many lambs and be struggling to keep grass under ewes and lambs as the year progresses.
“To give you more of an idea, farmers on the poorer ground who would normally scan 1.4-1.5 lambs/ewe are now seeing results of 1.6-1.7 lambs/ewe now.
“Scans on traditionally good grazing ground in Meath say, where we would be working, would be steady, with some seeing a decrease and some seeing an increase in cases on 2021. But say Donegal and Leitrim for example, where we work in too, would be up because of the extra grass grown that just put that extra bit of condition on ewes.
“In general, ewes we are scanning are in very good condition and particularly those on poorer ground with many happy customers in these areas.
“Some might say farmers must be doing something different, but they haven’t been. They are managing their ewes and carrying out the same breeding strategy, just are seeing, depending on the system, the benefits and maybe slight disadvantage the extra grass last year brought about.”