The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Marlboro on March 11, 2013, 06:07:40 pm
-
OH does the late night watch, he called me at 12.30 as one of the old brokers was lambing. He had got her in the pen. Watched on camera as she heaved and heaved, he hadn't noted whether twins or single from scanning marks. Any way I always expect the old ones to drop quite easily and eventually decided we needed to have a closer look. Got washed up took the lubricant and stood and watched for what could be seen. Marked as twins so I thought didn't ought to be trouble :-\. Could see two feet and a bit of nose when she heaved.
Went in to help, it was the tightest lamb I've ever drawn, huge boy, thought I was going to fail at one time. Anyway all was well soon up and sucking and us back in the house watching the camera.
It was about 1.15 but as the mark said twins it overroad my common sense and I decided I had to keep watching till :thinking: No 2 arrived. How I could imagine she had another one in there I do not know. It did dawn on me about 4.15 :relief: and I went to bed!
On thinking about it she has been in with thin twins and triplets for a higher feed plan, not sensible in the circumstances.
This morning 7.30 another of the old ewes, marked twins again, had a lovely large single, and yes I did keep a close eye on her :)
So far 3 lambed one had twins as predicted and two marked twins had singles, it will be interesting to see how the other 24 go, hope the singles are not expecting twins, mainly hogs and I would prefer a single off them.
How accurate is your scanner?
-
Scanner is 99% + accurate , to get this you need to do two things Scan at ave 80-90 days after rams in , 45 days after rams out. Remove all feed ,grass included about 18 hrs before scanning .
-
Thats a good bit of advice Shep...will remember that for next year :thumbsup:
-
Managed ok on the 45 days after tups out but the window of 10 days variation doesn't cover the time on tups in. Perhaps this doesn't really work for a small flock when the tups stay in for six weeks in case anyone missed the first serving. The early ones would have been well over the 80-90 day rule. I did ask about the fasting rule and my guy said not to bother as although easier if empty it didn't make that much difference, I was relieved as it didn't seem like a good idea at that stage in preganacy (or any stage). We will see how it goes, perhaps the ones closer to the 80-90 days rule will prove more accurate. :fc:
-
The 80/90 are the recommendations , variations allowed my rams out for 7 wks scan 93 days after , but if i dont fast for 18 hrs the scanning will take longer and the rate of accurate scans will drop