Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Scanner's been!  (Read 10306 times)

bigchicken

  • Joined Nov 2008
  • Fife Scotland
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #15 on: January 15, 2015, 09:08:54 am »
Great numbers Rosemary best of luck, can I ask who your scanner is as the one I had last year got it wrong more times than acceptable to me.
Shetland sheep, Castlemilk Moorits sheep, Hebridean sheep, Scots Grey Bantams, Scots Dumpy Bantams. Shetland Ducks.

Bionic

  • Joined Dec 2010
  • Talley, Carmarthenshire
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #16 on: January 15, 2015, 09:16:37 am »
Wow Rosemary, you are gonna have your hands full  :thumbsup:
Life is like a bowl of cherries, mostly yummy but some dodgy bits

bloomer

  • Joined Aug 2010
  • leslie, fife
  • i have chickens, sheep and opinions!!!
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #17 on: January 15, 2015, 09:24:38 am »
we didnt scan this year with just 5 girls in to tup, but next year with 9 it will be more important i guess...


2 questions,


 how much does scanning cost ? pm if not for open forum, its not somethingi have included in my costs planning and should budget for it i think.


how many weeks after tupping are they scanned at?


ps wow thats going to be a lt of baby ewoks for you to look after rosemary!!!

Hugo

  • Joined Feb 2014
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #18 on: January 15, 2015, 09:34:12 am »
Is the reason you have got many triplets and twins due to them being in really good condition? As my ewes went to the tup quit fat but not too fat. I don't scan but should I worry about having lots of twins and possible triplets due to them being in very good condition when going to the tup?

Any advice would be great!

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #19 on: January 15, 2015, 10:33:28 am »
Rosemary, with your gimmer-with-single, assuming she's a shearling not a hogg then yes, I would not be giving her cake; too much risk of an overlarge lamb. 

When she comes back to the flock at lambing, if she has a particular friend in the hoggs, you could let the hogg, (or three) come across with her too to help her settle back in?   Some folks let their hoggs run with the lambing ewes to get used to what wee lambies are like for when it's their turn ;)  But your Ryelands are probably so laid back it wouldn't be a problem bringing her back on her own, anyway - it's not like it's to sheep she's never met before.


Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #20 on: January 15, 2015, 10:42:54 am »
Is the reason you have got many triplets and twins due to them being in really good condition? As my ewes went to the tup quit fat but not too fat. I don't scan but should I worry about having lots of twins and possible triplets due to them being in very good condition when going to the tup?

What the books say is that it's about 'a rising plane of nutrition', ie., giving them a lift - new pasture, or feed, or some such - just as they come to the tup, rather than their underlying condition.  So people working to get maximum scan rates keep them on the lowish side after weaning, then 'flush' them - on fresh ground, usually - a couple of weeks before putting the tup in.

It's also important how they are cared for during and in the weeks after tupping - any shocks, or degradation in feed supply, can cause them to not implant and/or to lose early foetuses. 

On our farm we expressly don't want triplets and like to get lots of healthy singles that will grow well and hit the early market at top prices, so we do the opposite of flushing, and run them on the same ground with no feed while they're tupped, then give them mineral licks or a drench after the tup comes out, and make sure they have plenty of forage (so move them if the ground they are on is tired) so that they implant and keep whatever eggs have been fertilised.

Last year we'd had no option but to run one group of 'earlies' on fresh grass, and they all had twins or triplets, which defeated the purpose of their being early, really, as less of their lambs finished early, being twins and triples.   ::)
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Hugo

  • Joined Feb 2014
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #21 on: January 15, 2015, 11:12:23 am »
Okay thank you.

I have white faced welsh mountain ewes which will start lambing from 24 March. However their is not much grass in the paddock they are in at the moment. They had clean pasture when they were put into the tup but I can't move them as I rely on people lending me fields. They are getting through a bale a day of hay and have got a mineral lick and are still nibbling at the grass quite a lot of the time. I normally don't feed them till just after 6 weeks before lambing as I don't want lambs to be too big.

I am going to get them in this week end and condition score them roughly to see what they are like. But do you think I should start feeding earlier? They went into the tup in very good condition and don't look weak of very thin when i check them.

Any advice would be great!

Thank you.

Foobar

  • Joined Mar 2012
  • South Wales
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #22 on: January 15, 2015, 11:20:26 am »

It's also important how they are cared for during and in the weeks after tupping - any shocks, or degradation in feed supply, can cause them to not implant and/or to lose early foetuses. 

yeah, it's the first 40 days after mating that you have to worry about, after that day the embryos are implanted and are "safe". I always make a note of the last mating date and count 40 days onto that, and make sure I don't handle or stress out the sheep during that time.


I've not had mine scanned (didn't get around to finding a scanner :)), but some are looking awfully wide already, and they aren't due until mid-march. eeek!

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #23 on: January 15, 2015, 11:26:22 am »
Our scanner is a girl called Gillian Travers, bigchicken. Her business is called Booscan. She does sheep and cattle; based in Dollar / Biggar but does all over now, even Fife  ;D If you want her contact details, let me know. As I say this is our seventh year using her and she's never been wrong yet.

bloomer, Gillian charges £30 plus VAT minimum charge then so much per ewe. We pay the minimum, but I don't know at what number the minimum stops.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #24 on: January 15, 2015, 01:01:15 pm »
Condition scoring is the best check, of course.  Assuming they've been kept up to date with worm and fluke meds (especially if on tight ground), if you're feeding them plenty of hay then they should be fine. 

How many are there?  A bale a day should keep 20-30 very happy at this stage.

It's normal for pregnant ewes to drop a little condition over the winter months, so unless they are less than CS2, for a hill breed I wouldn't be concerned.

When you do condition score them, if they are all, as a group, a little too thin, then they probably do need more feed (and/or fluking/worming.)  If a few are thinner than the others, likely they are carrying more lambs and maybe would benefit from extra feed - but if you can't separate them into two groups you won't be able to feed some and not others, I assume.

In the last 6-8 weeks, the lambs start to (a) take up a lot more room, and (b) make more demands on the ewe's system, so a ewe with a bellyful of lambs may not have the physical room in her rumen for the amount of forage she really needs to grow the lambs, set in her milk stores, and keep her own condition, hence why it can be important to give more hard feed to the multiple-bearers.

The ewe needs a lot of sugars in the last 6-8 weeks too, so it's a time when the sugary block of minerals works better than the mineral-only licks.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #25 on: January 15, 2015, 01:35:08 pm »
Again, I agree with Sally.  I'd much rather a first-timer had a good single than scrappy twins and much rather a ewe had twins than triplets which means I have to try and get one adopted or bottle feed.  I think the ewe should do the work, not me!

Slimjim

  • Joined Apr 2013
  • North Devon
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #26 on: January 15, 2015, 01:58:45 pm »
I think you're right. No feed is better than feeding for twins.
I have not used a scanner before this year and have fed the ewes assuming twins - not that mad since the majority are Jacobs and Lleyns and have actually had twins previously. But  a Badger Face was carrying a single and I had to help her deliver a big single lamb. This happened two years running, so this year they have been scanned. The Badger is carrying  twins! So I have 5 twins and a different Badger with a single. I don't plan on feeding her much more than hay.

Ladygrey

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Basingstoke
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #27 on: January 15, 2015, 09:16:54 pm »
Wow thats a high %! specially for ryelands!

My scanner hasnt been yet and its already 8 weeks till lambing time! cant wait for lambing!
I have lots of ewe lambs this year so that will bring my percentage down, they are however as big as the shearlings already, so may be fine  :thinking:

langfauld easycare

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: Scanner's been!
« Reply #28 on: January 15, 2015, 09:53:20 pm »
 :wave: i have used gillian for the last 2 years, she has not been yet but txt me tonight to say she would be in touch soon . she is the third scanner i have used and is the best by far  :thumbsup:

 

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