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Scanning %

Mutch

Member
Location
Dorset
The dog attack that we had came back to bite us again at the week end - 18 of the 70 NZ Suffolk ewes in the group worried had reabsorbed / barren a high proportion of these AI'd - start totting up the financial cost and it gets scary its with the insurance company now.
But most frustrating is the delay in genetic progress and flock expansion.:mad:
 

Bill dog

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Scottish Borders
First batch scanned:
122 nz suff/lleyn to nz suff 200%
72 lleyn to lleyn 173%
102 Romney to nz texel 181%
Disappointed with the lleyn gimmers, but maybe new tup ran out of puff!! But good gain from last year with the Romneys. Up from 155% last year. Double clipped them this time round , think that has helped lift them to a respectable level. All outdoor lambing mid march onward.
 

RockyKildare

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Herefordshire
Had our sheep scanned today. Disappointed with the results:

170 Mules and texel x mules 134%
190 Texel X's 145%
40 Highlander ewe lambs 115%

Really disappointed with our mules and texel x mule's. Only had 4 barren out of the whole flock but had lots of singles. All ewes were in good condition and had mineral buckets prior to ram going in. Last year our mule and tex mules group were at 186%.
We had a really bad job with enzo abortion last year so was wondering if this could have anything to do with it? We vaccinated them all 6 weeks before the ram went in. Anyone got any thoughts????
Ewe lambs scanned well though I thought.
 

Jim75

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Easter ross
I feel your pain @RockyKildare scanned our contract ewes last week. Cheviot ewes to Cheviot and texel tups.

Averaged 137%. Top group did 210%

Taking blood tests on wed just to rule anything out/in. Having sat down and gone through it, the time from buying on to going in with the tup was to short but given time constraints wasnt much we could do about that. The top group had been on farm since February and the rest were brought on end of sept to beginning of Nov. Bitterly disappointing but can only look forward to next year given how the top group have performed.
 

S J H

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Ewes, tex X, Scotch half bred X and mules
126no. 195%
0-2
1-26
2-70
3-24
4-1
Ewe lambs, tex X
77no. 117%
0-15
1-34
2-28

Think I've still got to many barren in the ewe lambs, but I don't know how to improve it :scratchhead:
 

jemski

Member
Location
Dorset
Had our sheep scanned today. Disappointed with the results:

170 Mules and texel x mules 134%
190 Texel X's 145%
40 Highlander ewe lambs 115%

Really disappointed with our mules and texel x mule's. Only had 4 barren out of the whole flock but had lots of singles. All ewes were in good condition and had mineral buckets prior to ram going in. Last year our mule and tex mules group were at 186%.
We had a really bad job with enzo abortion last year so was wondering if this could have anything to do with it? We vaccinated them all 6 weeks before the ram went in. Anyone got any thoughts????
Ewe lambs scanned well though I thought.

Mine scanned at 184% as opposed to 200% last year and my scanner said he was seeing it most places. Just one of those years I think. Had mine blood tested and nothing major showed. Ewes all in good nick. Interestingly I kept the ewe lambs tight pre tupping because they scanned too many twins last year and they scanned even better this year - 127% too many twins for my liking.
 

jemski

Member
Location
Dorset
Scanned the orange raddle marked ewes (first turn) on friday.
0: 5
1: 160
2: 872
3: 91
4: 12 :(
5: 1 :cry::yuck: overall very happy with the results. Purple raddle( second turn) will be done first week in feb. Scan in two batches for handiness. And dont have to rush around so much and get to be there when they are getting scanned.

That's a great twinning percentage!!!!!
 

scottish-lleyn

Member
Mixed Farmer
only a few empty (y)
Can almost explain them all aswell. 1 had a thorn in its gum and had an absess in its mouth in novermber and lost alot of condition. Another 2 shouldnt have been to the tup as they are 11 years old and sneaked to the tup under a fence thankfully not got in lamb and can continue there career as horse field grazers. Other 2 who knows
 

new/man

Member
The dog attack that we had came back to bite us again at the week end - 18 of the 70 NZ Suffolk ewes in the group worried had reabsorbed / barren a high proportion of these AI'd - start totting up the financial cost and it gets scary its with the insurance company now.
But most frustrating is the delay in genetic progress and flock expansion.:mad:
had almost exact same problem, 70 blackie ewes in a batch, 2 ewes killed 3 weeks after rams put in and scan last week turned up 19 emptys, felt bit sick that morning to say the least
 

ffukedfarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
West Kent
Mine scanned at 184% as opposed to 200% last year and my scanner said he was seeing it most places. Just one of those years I think.

Our scanner said the same, most people down. Lots more singles and very few triplets.

Our first batch of 100 (mainly texel X) scanned at 164% , but the mules did well at 202%.

I've been trying to work out why (apart from breed) there should be such a difference in performance. They were treated the same up until the rams went in after which the texel X went to different fields. The mules stayed at home and went onto fertilised and cared for ground, the texel crosses went onto some new ground i've taken on that hasn't had anything done to it for years but was topped in the summer. There was a really nice bite of regrowth there.
The mules went to the ram at 1:60, the texel X at 1:100. Only 3 or 4 of the texels were remarked after 17 days.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Had our sheep scanned today. Disappointed with the results:

170 Mules and texel x mules 134%
190 Texel X's 145%
40 Highlander ewe lambs 115%

Really disappointed with our mules and texel x mule's. Only had 4 barren out of the whole flock but had lots of singles. All ewes were in good condition and had mineral buckets prior to ram going in. Last year our mule and tex mules group were at 186%.
We had a really bad job with enzo abortion last year so was wondering if this could have anything to do with it? We vaccinated them all 6 weeks before the ram went in. Anyone got any thoughts????
Ewe lambs scanned well though I thought.

That's not great.:( EAE abortion last year shouldn't have effected the scanning %age, although you might get a few abort later on that picked it up last year. Vaccination won't effect scanning either, unless done in the last month. A lot of barren ewes might suggest dog worrying or Toxo, but you only had 4.:scratchhead: Most infectious agents would make them lose the lot, rather than one of a pair IME.
If the ewes were in good condition, and fed sweeties, flushing would only have a negligible effect, so any poorer feed shouldn't have dropped prolificacy so dramatically.

The first things I would consider for investigation would be trace elements or fluke. Most likely the former, as heavy fluke infestation would have become evident in ewe condition by now.
 
Location
Co. Antrim
we have scanned and not had a good year, only 5 empties out of 150 but 90 singles. I have only come back onto farm last couple of years and prior to this replacements were picked on basis of what was left at end of year. So I know genetic quality is not great in flock. our ewes are all Lleyn or lleyn x dorset. I think the ewes were in too good condition 3.5/4 is some cases. but question is which has a bigger impact on numbers... ewe condition or genetics?
 
Disappointing scan here. 624 ewes scanned 160% (180% last year). 23 gelds.
437 hoggs only did 86%. (119% last year). 104 geld.
All Beltex x or texel x. Ewes are in good order and hoggs are growing away very well so disappointed in the results. Some ewes were running a bit tight at tupping which maybe explains the low %. What's the general consensus about scanning % around the country this year?
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

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