Scanning 2021

Scanned first bunch of ewes yesterday, 24 x3. 235 x 2. 144 x 1 and 34 empty. Would be a very bad scanning for us over 20% down, obviously a lot of empty and less multiples. Very strange sheep had an ideal autumn with a nice bite and were in good condition had been bollused as usual pre tupping. Scannerman said 80% of farms he had been to didn't have great scannings. A headscratcher.
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Will a lot of lowland sheep be in too good condition when they went to the tup and this may be what is lowering peoples scan results. Our fell ewes came in to tup far too fat, I’m expecting either a ridiculous number of lambs or all singles. Don’t think there will be a middle ground.
For the last 5 years anyway my ewes in the autumn have always been BCS 4.5-7 in the autumn as mountains of grass appear, this year it didn’t happen and ewes were 3.5-4.5 at tupping and down a fair bit scanning wise 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

Fat Lamb

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
Scanned first bunch of ewes yesterday, 24 x3. 235 x 2. 144 x 1 and 34 empty. Would be a very bad scanning for us over 20% down, obviously a lot of empty and less multiples. Very strange sheep had an ideal autumn with a nice bite and were in good condition had been bollused as usual pre tupping. Scannerman said 80% of farms he had been to didn't have great scannings. A headscratcher.
The weather conditions mid April/early May(ie no Spring to talk of) may have had an effect on results as this is when ewes scanned at the moment would actually start preparing for the next breeding season.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Will a lot of lowland sheep be in too good condition when they went to the tup and this may be what is lowering peoples scan results. Our fell ewes came in to tup far too fat, I’m expecting either a ridiculous number of lambs or all singles. Don’t think there will be a middle ground.

I don’t work with hill breeds, but lowland sheep have to be wobbly fat to reduce scan numbers. Ideal is 3.5-4, and CS4 is pretty damned fat.
 

Razor8

Member
Location
Ireland
Pure swaledale .
Crossed will the Leicester.
The mule offspring are very good sheep, very prolific, twins and triplets one after the other, couple of lambs at £130 far better than one fancy beltex/texel at £150.
The mule is unrivalled tbh
Very true.very consistent sheep. Do you buy in Swales or breed your own.
where do you sell mules lambs?
 
Exactly the same here....i thought ewes werre looking tremendous up till Christmas then they seem to have taken a real hammering since then, 1st load of cake came today, i was just gonna start caking the threes but might end up caking the lot, bit sooner than i wanted to really but cant do much about that.
Theyre eating round bales like theyre going out of fashion!
Yes exactly the same. It’s easier to keep flesh on than try to put it back on so to speak. Having said that last couple of days have been better but they are still eating well. Sometimes they actually perform better here when they are eating though rather than just eating grass with nowt in it. Friday was a bad day!
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Scanned ewe lambs and brokers today.
Welsh Brokers averaged 155% which I was very happy with.
Ewe lambs did alright although a few empties on big lambs and smaller lambs pregnant which is always frustrating. I did put a lot of small lambs in which should have been stores. Hoped to retain 220-240 ewe lambs, 320 went to the ram and 240 are pregnant, some of the best types will be kept with the rest either sold soon or kept until fat lambs hit a certain figure.
 

Dachie

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
east Ayrshire
Well scanned my swales today and it was a massive tail of two halves the half that went to the swale tups ave 183% which I have to say I was pleased with as there daft ewes.
Then I scanned the ewes with the bluefaces the one tupped in first 3 weeks were 153% which was bad enough for me and then the second lot tupped in last 3 weeks was 99% which is a disaster never had as poor a scanning since moving away from draft blackies. Shall be testing all tups next year pre tupping.
 
Well scanned my swales today and it was a massive tail of two halves the half that went to the swale tups ave 183% which I have to say I was pleased with as there daft ewes.
Then I scanned the ewes with the bluefaces the one tupped in first 3 weeks were 153% which was bad enough for me and then the second lot tupped in last 3 weeks was 99% which is a disaster never had as poor a scanning since moving away from draft blackies. Shall be testing all tups next year pre tupping.
Bloody hell. Would the mule breeders be on better ground?
 

Purli R

Member
Well scanned my swales today and it was a massive tail of two halves the half that went to the swale tups ave 183% which I have to say I was pleased with as there daft ewes.
Then I scanned the ewes with the bluefaces the one tupped in first 3 weeks were 153% which was bad enough for me and then the second lot tupped in last 3 weeks was 99% which is a disaster never had as poor a scanning since moving away from draft blackies. Shall be testing all tups next year pre tupping.
Bad weather?? Bluefaced stood under wall??
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
I would of said possibly but I use raddle harnesses and all the ewes are keeled and not just slightly either well keeled so still leaning toward tup or tups firing blanks.
I put 1 ram in with 150 ewes, first 10 days 120 served and they did 157%, put another ram in on day 11 and the remaining 30 did 131% 🤷🏻‍♂️. All bought off 1 farm which is a closed flock I buy from every year, all had same treatments and all were 1 bunch until the day the rams came out.
 

Dachie

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
east Ayrshire
Strange. Points towards tups if all ewes were same.
Yeah. I did an experiment this year after checking bloods for vit min and vet said I was not needing to bolus but had already bought boluses so boluses half and left half unbolused and then split them at pre scanning to see if the boluses made a difference and the was 0% difference between boluses and not bolused
 

Dachie

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
east Ayrshire
I put 1 ram in with 150 ewes, first 10 days 120 served and they did 157%, put another ram in on day 11 and the remaining 30 did 131% 🤷🏻‍♂️. All bought off 1 farm which is a closed flock I buy from every year, all had same treatments and all were 1 bunch until the day the rams came out.
Yeah sheep you can't fathom them. Well sorry you can when w you think you have everything about spot on they find a new way to ruin your day. 🤬🤬
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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