Alternative to scanning?

[SJGC]

Raising sheep here in Vermont we don’t have access to a competent scanner. Out west they do but we don’t have the numbers in the NE that enable people to get good at it seems like. After 2 years of very poor results we’ve decided it’s just a waste of time and money and added stress on the ewes. The goal had been to identify litter size so that we could divide the ewes into groups for pasture lambing - 100-150 for singles, 50-75 for twins and 20 for triplets. We then move to fresh grass every 2-7 days depending on the ease of the move and available labor

We are trying to grow the flock so currently bad mark any ewe that gets treated for anything and only retain ewe lambs out of ewes without a bad mark. Once we get to scale we will cull more quickly.

If we run all the ewes through the chute when we are vaccinating/tagging lambs at ~1 month of age and bag them would that give us an obvious answer as to who was open/lost their lambs? Working on being low-input etc etc so they just get walked through once or possibly twice a day during lambing.

We will have fed the opens for a few extra months but after culling 30 marked as open this year and then watching the remaining 15 we had retained to fatten all develop bags and then lamb out in the first cycle it looks like we lost out on a lot of income.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[yellowbelly]

Raddle some teasers and put them in when you take your proper tups out.
Any that they mark are not in lamb.

 

[DanM]

Condition score them at tupping and then again pre-lambing. The fatter the ewe, the more likely to be empty or carrying single. The thinner the ewe, the more likely to be triplets or more. Assuming good nutrition during pregnancy the twins should maintain body condition achieved at tupping. It’s not 100% but good place to start if scanner not available.

Can then drift off dry sheep each day from “single group” till lambing finished then you have your empties.
Bag ewes at a month to catch those that have had and lost as suggested!

 

[unlacedgecko]

Condition score them at tupping and then again pre-lambing. The fatter the ewe, the more likely to be empty or carrying single. The thinner the ewe, the more likely to be triplets or more. Assuming good nutrition during pregnancy the twins should maintain body condition achieved at tupping. It’s not 100% but good place to start if scanner not available.

Can then drift off dry sheep each day from “single group” till lambing finished then you have your empties.
Bag ewes at a month to catch those that have had and lost as suggested!

I was just about to tag you

 

[SJGC]

Thanks for the responses