how many dont scan ewes??

[twizzel]

My small flock all tupped in 4 days apart from 1 early one and no returns and weren't sponged... saved on marker spraying raddle marks as they are all the same colour bar the one that looks like a tangerine scanning for the first time this year. We pd'd all the cows last year- so helpful in knowing which was due when... and saved feeding 3 or 4 empties through winter. Would have liked to have done it again this autumn but a differing of opinion meant OH and I were outnumbered

 

[Bones]

Old neighbour of ours scanned for the first time last year after a bit of persuasion. He said he would never do it again,to much work separating ewes in 3 groups and feeding accordingly, ,, what can you do, some people just can't change,

 

[abitdaft]

The easiest and cleanest way to apply marker fluid ( Keel )is to get a brush shaft or the like and cut it to about 18 inches, twist it into the keel pot and then twist it into the fleece. Seen plenty trying to smear it on and making a mess.

 

[DrDunc]

The easiest and cleanest way to apply marker fluid ( Keel )is to get a brush shaft or the like and cut it to about 18 inches, twist it into the keel pot and then twist it into the fleece. Seen plenty trying to smear it on and making a mess.

Best not use your mum's window cleaning brush though

 

[GTB]

I think we only have one neighbour who doesn't scan his sheep now. He said he would start scanning when the scanner could tell him if the singles were male or female as he turns his female singles back to the hill after lambing. He's always been a tight fisted awkward c**t and I doubt he'll ever change. Stupid f**ker spends days at lambing separating his twins from his singles.

 

[Green farmer]

Have lambed indoors up till now. Scan and separate. One advantage of scanning is when you arrive along in the morning and see a stray lamb bawling and no ewe taking ownership, at least you can eliminate out who doesn't own it and get down to one ignorant stubborn ewe, who will get a nice cull tag.

 

[cotswoldcs]

I think I'd give up lambing sheep if we couldn't scan. Never bothered scanning the tups - saves a bit of money.

 

[Bones]

I think I'd give up lambing sheep if we couldn't scan. Never bothered scanning the tups - saves a bit of money.

My tups are nearly always empty anyway

 

[irish dom]

My tups are nearly always empty anyway

Knew of a guy who was suspicious of the stand in scanning man he got one weekend while regular guy was under pressure. Surprised at his unusually high scan ( all twins In first hundred through crate and in record time at that) usual scan was 130% as it is the top of a mountain and horned ewes.
To check wether he was going mad or not he turned in a pen of rung wethers in to the magician which resulted in a batch average of 200%. Some choice words were used and the scan man made a hasty retreat. Never heard much of him again.

 

[GTB]

Knew of a guy who was suspicious of the stand in scanning man he got one weekend while regular guy was under pressure. Surprised at his unusually high scan ( all twins In first hundred through crate and in record time at that) usual scan was 130% as it is the top of a mountain and horned ewes.
To check wether he was going mad or not he turned in a pen of rung wethers in to the magician which resulted in a batch average of 200%. Some choice words were used and the scan man made a hasty retreat. Never heard much of him again.

Seriously?

 

[Lamborghini]

I find the best method is to condition score the ewes about 4 - 6 weeks before first lambers due. The best conditioned ewes are the barreners and singles which require no extra feeding at that stage. The barreners will be apparent a couple of weeks later as they are not bagging up. The ewes that require immediate extra feeding will be obvious by their lean condition. This seems more effective and cheaper than scanning.

 

[neilo]

I find the best method is to condition score the ewes about 4 - 6 weeks before first lambers due. The best conditioned ewes are the barreners and singles which require no extra feeding at that stage. The barreners will be apparent a couple of weeks later as they are not bagging up. The ewes that require immediate extra feeding will be obvious by their lean condition. This seems more effective and cheaper than scanning.

I would suggest that the ‘cheapest’ way would be to scan and stop them getting to the stage that they ‘require immediate feeding’, but each to their own....

 

[neilo]

I think I'd give up lambing sheep if we couldn't scan. Never bothered scanning the tups - saves a bit of money.

Back in the old days, when rams were left in because ‘a late lamb is better than no lamb’, I always used to let the scanner have a few of the rams in unannounced, just to see if he was still awake.

 

[GTB]

I'm sure you've all heard the one about the ex dairy farmer from "Welshpool area"? He got the scanner in to scan his new flock of sheep. After scanning the first twenty or so empty the scanner asked the farmer when the rams went in. Farmer replied "Rams? No, I sponged them!"

 

[Al R]

I find the best method is to condition score the ewes about 4 - 6 weeks before first lambers due. The best conditioned ewes are the barreners and singles which require no extra feeding at that stage. The barreners will be apparent a couple of weeks later as they are not bagging up. The ewes that require immediate extra feeding will be obvious by their lean condition. This seems more effective and cheaper than scanning.

We have ewes that don't look like their due anytime soon and her week will be running out, not much of an udder in the morning, by that evening there's twins on her and she's got a Pamela Anderson udder!
You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between our singles twins and triplet ewes unless you scanned. Our scanner charges circa 50p, if he charged £3 I'd still scan everything!

@cotswoldcs ive seen a new relief milker once who was there saying how much milking he'd done etc........ and then he tried to put the clusters on a Holstein Bull he was asked to leave and never return before the milking had finished.

 

[GTB]

Also heard of one farmer/dealer from the Llanidloes area who runs several thousand sheep. They went to scan one flock and after scanning the first twenty or so empty they realised they had forgotten to take any rams to that place. I'm assured that one is definitely true.

 

[neilo]

Also heard of one farmer/dealer from the Llanidloes area who runs several thousand sheep. They went to scan one flock and after scanning the first twenty or so empty they realised they had forgotten to take any rams to that place. I'm assured that one is definitely true.

I heard the one too. That’s economies of scale at work for you. He had more barren ewes to cash in than anyone else.

 

[GTB]

Back in the old days, when rams were left in because ‘a late lamb is better than no lamb’, I always used to let the scanner have a few of the rams in unannounced, just to see if he was still awake.

We did that a few times but the scanner (a good friend) would always shout "twin" just to see if we were awake too.

 

[AftonShepherd]

Not sure I should admit to this, but we found a (4 year old) wether at scanning this year which must have been scanned twice before. Once spotted, the strong head stuck out a mile but hadn't been noticed before.
Must have been a peeler (Cheviot) because the contractors that do our shearing aren't the sort to miss out on a chance of taking the pee.

 

[Al R]

Not sure I should admit to this, but we found a (4 year old)wether at scanning this year which must have been scanned twice before. Once spotted, the strong head stuck out a mile but hadn't been noticed before.
Must have been a peeler (Cheviot) because the contractors that do our shearing aren't the sort to miss out on a chance of taking the pee.

Haha, we bought 100 welsh mountain ewe lambs from 1 farm a few years ago, 5 ram lambs arrived, entire! Luckily none were pregnant and he paid the difference between the kill price and what we'd paid him.