With the breeding season in full-swing on mid-season lambing flocks, early-lambing flocks should be turning attentions to scanning ewes.
Ideally, farmers should be looking to scan their early-lambing ewes 80-90 days post-ram turnout.
Scanning at 80 days will ensure that the scanner can pick up all of the ewes that are in-lamb.
On the flip side, scanning ewes that are greater than 90-100 days in-lamb will make it more difficult for the scanner to identify how many lambs the ewe is carrying – especially if ewes are in very good condition.
Moreover, 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 culled as they were considered empty.
There are many benefits to scanning ewes that farmers should take advantage of.
These include:
- It will identify empty ewes that can be culled and sold;
- It will give an indication to the number of lambs a ewe is carrying;
- It will allow for ewes to be batched according to litter size for ease of management and feeding;
- It will give farmers an idea of how much feed should be offered to ewes;
- It will help to give a rough indication of when a ewe is due to lamb.