how many dont scan ewes??

[irish dom]

Seriously?

Heard it from the man himself as I now scan for himthe past 10 years. Not one for bulls**t. Know the individual in question as well and I wasn't one bit surprised.

 

[irish dom]

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.

Sheared a bunch of 100 top priced mule hogget s a couple of years ago. They had cost big money privately from a top breeder. We fairly ripped the pee out of him when we found half a dozen lovely fat wether in it. My brother asks him every year has he checked for transsexuals cos those fecker are everywhere these days

 

[NZDan]

We used to use a scanner that had tubs of marking fluid hanging on the side of his crate with a scrubbing brush in each one to apply. The hateful stuff used to get everywhere. However, I do sometimes wonder how the scanners feel at the end of each day, having sat in direct line of thousands of puffs of gas from spray cans. High as kites half the time I suppose.

Not high at all, but the sense of smell and sense of taste disappears with time. There is the start of a big movement to get away from using sprays. Personally I'd rather not use sprays for health reasons, but marker fluids and auto markers have a range of practical application issues. I'f you're a farmer and you scan your ewes strongly consider using some thing other than spray.

 

[NZDan]

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.

I quite enjoy a wether coming through, they're easy to pick, first the shepherds banter changes, then everyone driftd forward for a look, so I start looking for 'wether' heads, sure enough the wether head is attached to a nonpregnant animal with a small pelvis bone, which is a rel give away for a wether, I slap a twin or triplet mark on it before any one can react and do my best to keep a poker face.

 

[NZDan]

. Our scanner charges circa 50p, if he charged £3 I'd still scan everything!.

I've taken note of that. ;-)

 

[Al R]

I've taken note of that. ;-)

I'm trying to put a point across to those that don't scan that it's worth it.....

 

[GrannyAching]

I'm trying to put a point across to those that don't scan that it's worth it.....

Really can't agree enough. With my small numbers it works out quite expensive but I wouldn't be without it. Especially useful as with multiples knowing how many more are to come, who might be a potential fosterer etc.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

It really comes down to what you'll do with the information you get from scanning.
Dad never did, in 50+ years of sheep farming, but I can see his reasons for not; he had very few dries and everything ran together anyway. He did well without it.

For me, tiny mob of hoggets - likely hardly worth doing as they are all together anyway, no point pulling out the 8 twins and the 2 dries is it?
But I did anyway, as the young guy down the road was keen to get some more practice, and a box of beer is cheap.

Definitely a worthwhile management tool though, if you're going to do something with the results.

 

[Nithsdale]

Definitely a worthwhile management tool though, if you're going to do something with the results.

Nail on head.

If for whatever reason you can't utilise the information (not just won't - but actually can't)... then it is pointless scanning in the first place, and just becomes another cost with no benefits.

 

[AftonShepherd]

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.

Sheared a bunch of 100 top priced mule hogget s a couple of years ago. They had cost big money privately from a top breeder. We fairly ripped the pee out of him when we found half a dozen lovely fat wether in it. My brother asks him every year has he checked for transsexuals cos those fecker are everywhere these days

Wish I could blame a seller. All our "females" are homebred lol. All checked at weaning, so can only assume it was a lamb that turned up late off the hill and got flung in with the ewe lambs without being checked.

 

[TripleSix]

We don't scan.
Lambing around 500.

We don't have enough fields to be separating everyone for separate feeding, only 1 shed to lamb in.

We only tend to lamb out at 110%, rarely see any triples...

We used to scan the Romney's I used to lamb outside for a customer.

Very valuable information, but not suitable for home...

 

[NZDan]

I'm trying to put a point across to those that don't scan that it's worth it.....

Yes i know, I've plenty of people that pay well over 3quid for scanning.
I'm involved in a low input sheep group and we've been costing out some on farm activities, scanning is one of the cheaper ones. Docking and dagging were surprisingly expensive. Docking at $1.50-$2.70 per lamb, dagging at $1 per time with some sheep being dagged 18-20 times, dipping at about $3 per sheep. They all make scanning at 70c look pretty cheap.

 

[Green farmer]

Lads, just thinking about it, going to stop using sprays and use marker fluids for scanning, marking lambs ready for market, etc but what do you use instead for marking numbers on lambs going out to the field to pair up with their mothers ? ( Don't bother marking singles but do mark twins at moment )

 

[Nithsdale]

Lads, just thinking about it, going to stop using sprays and use marker fluids for scanning, marking lambs ready for market, etc but what do you use instead for marking numbers on lambs going out to the field to pair up with their mothers ? ( Don't bother marking singles but do mark twins at moment )

You can't get away from spray cans, for numbering lambs IMO.

Cans are fine, so long as your not using them a lot in a confined space - like a scanning trailer, for example.

 

[GTB]

Wish I could blame a seller. All our "females" are homebred lol. All checked at weaning, so can only assume it was a lamb that turned up late off the hill and got flung in with the ewe lambs without being checked.

We've all done it.

 

[Woolless]

We've all done it.

I got 17 extra lambs because of it last year. Much more than my stupidity deserved!

 

[GTB]

I got 17 extra lambs because of it last year. Much more than my stupidity deserved!

So you'll be doing the same again next year? 17 extra lambs don't just grow on trees you know

 

[Woolless]

So you'll be doing the same again next year? 17 extra lambs don't just grow on trees you know

I've tried to be a bit more observant this year (though one woolly little womble nearly slipped through the net!). Those 'bonus' hoggs lambed away fine though, so I am keeping the idea of using a cross tup lamb on hoggs at the back of my mind.

 

[hendrebc]

We had a runty ram lamb whos balls hadnt dropped with the ewe lambs one year when i was a kid. He served the bloody lot and we ended up with 220 live lambs from them over a 3 month lambing.

 

[Woolless]

We had a runty ram lamb whos balls hadnt dropped with the ewe lambs one year when i was a kid. He served the bloody lot and we ended up with 220 live lambs from them over a 3 month lambing.

Sounds like fun!