Scanning %

[GrannyAching]

Total disaster in terms of planning/management. Despite the ewes being lean and some of the lambs being barely 40kg, I kept them really tight on the run up to tupping in the hope that I wouldn't have triplets but mostly twins and singles and the lambs would be singles.So .........

13 ewe lambs
7 singles
4 twins
2 triplets one being the smallest one put to

28 ewes and hogs
1 barren
15 twins
11 triplets One of these is an 8 year old Wilty x who has put lots of weight on to achieve the remarkable CS of 2.25 (in a good light!)
1 - jumped out knackered her leg and didn't get done

207% over all. The guy who did the scanning said it could have been worse - they could have been his!

I didn't put the tubby buckets out this year which only seems to have meant more second services not less lambs.
Very impressed with getting accurate scans at 6 weeks and the advice that one of the triplets has two big lambs and one very small but alive. Trying not to panic as they aren't due til Easter.

I think my ram and his son are pretty fertile! I need to use something else next year across most of the ewes so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Actually, I would put money on a stroppy Welsh ram lamb beating a large sheep lowland type to the front of any queue.

 

[neilo]

A mate of mine put a welsh ram lamb, in with some suffolk ewes as a teaser before putting a charolais tup in, he then left the ram lamb in thinking he wouldn't get a look in, they all lambed in the time scale of having the charolais with them, but most had welsh lambs, not suggesting you should use a welsh tup, but just thinking semen from other breeds, might reach the parts a pedigree charollais can't, bit like using a fertility plus beef straw on a holstein cow.

That would sort of defeat the object of the pedigree flock though. If it weren't for the need of specific rams on specific ewes, then yes, I would use several service sires, but they'd all be the same breed (as a lot of the fertility+ is).

Mine will all lamb in the timescale they had the Charollais ram in too, as they came out after 34 days.

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

That would sort of defeat the object of the pedigree flock though. If it weren't for the need of specific rams on specific ewes, then yes, I would use several service sires, but they'd all be the same breed (as a lot of the fertility+ is).

Mine will all lamb in the timescale they had the Charollais ram in too, as they came out after 34 days.

The fertility plus semen, isn't the same breed as the cow though, might be three bulls of the same breed, your inlamb ewes might lamb within the 34 days, but the empty ones won't.

 

[paul&mandy]

group of shearlings 170% and ewes 191% very pleased with that, not got the numbers in front of me but only 70 triplets out of 1000ewes/ shearlings

 

[Y Fan Wen]

A mate of mine put a welsh ram lamb, in with some suffolk ewes as a teaser before putting a charolais tup in, he then left the ram lamb in thinking he wouldn't get a look in, they all lambed in the time scale of having the charolais with them, but most had welsh lambs, not suggesting you should use a welsh tup, but just thinking semen from other breeds, might reach the parts a pedigree charollais can't, bit like using a fertility plus beef straw on a holstein cow.

Ho, ho ho! Lowland rams never get a look in when there is a mountain ram about. I took a ram over to the lowland farm to run with my pick hill ewes one year and sis rang the following day to say he had gone. We found him in with a flock of hill ewes with 8 suffolk rams in harness. He was working away flat out and the suffolks were standing round watching him at work. Caught him up and sneaked away!

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Done the first flock now. 257 total, 9 empty, 184 singles and 64 twins, 121%
Last year 248 total 14 empty 188 singles and 46 twins 113%. General feeling is that there are significantly fewer empty this season. My scanner doesn't look for more than twins in a mountain flock but last year I actually had 3 triplets which is unheard of. Usually one every few years.
I guess, like every year, it will be a job to get past 100% weaned and away. Economists say that 80% is the optimum for hard hill flocks and trying to get more is just flogging yourself into the ground.

 

[Guiggs]

Done the first flock now. 257 total, 9 empty, 184 singles and 64 twins, 121%
Last year 248 total 14 empty 188 singles and 46 twins 113%. General feeling is that there are significantly fewer empty this season. My scanner doesn't look for more than twins in a mountain flock but last year I actually had 3 triplets which is unheard of. Usually one every few years.
I guess, like every year, it will be a job to get past 100% weaned and away. Economists say that 80% is the optimum for hard hill flocks and trying to get more is just flogging yourself into the ground.

Are you pleased with that result?
It's a foreign concept to me to have a % of 80 odd and it be acceptable, 20 % with no lambs?
What would happen to those ewes?
Culled or ran on for the year?
Obviously I know very little about hill flocks, I'm genuinely interested to know!

 

[Y Fan Wen]

That's all I've known. Getting 180-200 is just as foreign for me. We are restricted by topography to that sort of level. Mountain flocks are self contained and hefted so we have home bred replacements and they are moved on as breeding ewes usually after 3 crops. The lambs produced are too small for todays markets unlike in the 60's and 70's. Any attempts to increase the ewe size just causes increased mortality. Today it is hopelessly uneconomic and totally supported by the brown envelopes. What happens post 2020 is a complete unknown.

 

[neilo]

That's all I've known. Getting 180-200 is just as foreign for me. We are restricted by topography to that sort of level. Mountain flocks are self contained and hefted so we have home bred replacements and they are moved on as breeding ewes usually after 3 crops. The lambs produced are too small for todays markets unlike in the 60's and 70's. Any attempts to increase the ewe size just causes increased mortality. Today it is hopelessly uneconomic and totally supported by the brown envelopes. What happens post 2020 is a complete unknown.

Those brown envelopes will be getting a lot bigger up to 2019 though, thanks to the actions of the F***ed by the Uplands group. Is it true there's a new Range Rover dealership opening in Snowdonia?

 

[AvonValleyFarmer]

Finally got my scanning done for my April lambers. Mostly Lleyns, with some Texels and Suffolks. All put to Charollais except a few Lleyns put to Lleyn tup.

170% overall which I'm not particularly pleased with. Would have preferred to be at 185% or there abouts.

36% singles which I'm not very happy about .

52% twin rate.

Not sure why i have so many singles this time around. Have a sneaky feeling a lot of the singles are from the Lleyns that ran with the Lleyn tup, but wont know until i have a proper look tomorrow. At least I won't have too many cades I guess

 

[shearerlad]

Let's us know what the vet says, a lot of people over here with to many empties this year, including my self ,and all my sheep are done for enzo + toxo.

Took blood from twins and empties.
Vet has a hunch that selenium could be low.

 

[Bones]

Ho, ho ho! Lowland rams never get a look in when there is a mountain ram about. I took a ram over to the lowland farm to run with my pick hill ewes one year and sis rang the following day to say he had gone. We found him in with a flock of hill ewes with 8 suffolk rams in harness. He was working away flat out and the suffolks were standing round watching him at work. Caught him up and sneaked away!

Took blood from twins and empties.
Vet has a hunch that selenium could be low.

Come back with final results,

 

[Archie]

Scanned 422 Mule & Tex X Mule ewes today at 196%.

14 empty
57 singles
281 twins
70 triplets

All outside lambing from 26th March. Just hope winter doesn't finally arrive then.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Those brown envelopes will be getting a lot bigger up to 2019 though, thanks to the actions of the F***ed by the Uplands group. Is it true there's a new Range Rover dealership opening in Snowdonia?

I couldn't possibly comment!!
Tho' it depends on actually 'getting' the brown envelope. Glastir CW returned Nov., no reaction.

 

[ttboy]

Scanned 335 today. 194 NofE mules & 141 cheviot & tex x cheviot
Mules
Singles 45
Twins 127
Triplets 8
Empty 14
Cheviot & texel x cheviot
Singles 38
Twins 92
Triplets 2
Empty 9

Happy enough with that, a lot less triplets on mules this year

 

[Tim W]

Ewes 189%
ewe lambs 81%
Charollais 147% --- but quite a good number held to my cervical AI

 

[S J H]

Ewes 189%
ewe lambs 81%
Charollais 147% --- but quite a good number held to my cervical AI

Do you cull your empty ewe lambs @Tim W ? How long do you give them?

 

[neilo]

Scanned Tuesday and just fiddling with the figures on Shearwell Farmworks:

Ewes 172% (down 19% on the year and 4% barren)

Breaking it down into ram mating groups:
Ewes to Charollais tups (ongoing problem with lean ewes in this mob, suspect fluke): 166%
77 Ewes to Highlander Ram: 179%
50 Ewes to Lleyn shearling: 198%
57 Ewes to NZ Texel shearling: 165% (can't explain that one as tupped on ryegrass, 5 empties)
After last year's debacle with 2 aged rams going infertile, all tups were fertility tested before use.

Or on age (most of the lean ones are shearlings):
Shearling ewes (NZ Texel & Highlander): 156%
Mature ewes (Highlanders): 179%

Taken bloods from half a dozen lean, barren ewes to check for TE's, esp Iodine (bolused a month ago) and for fluke antigens. Trodaxed everything and back onto roots.

On a brighter note, or maybe not, ewe lambs: 127%
12 empty from 74. 30 singles, 32 twins.

Only 74 tupped as everything hammered by Iodine deficiency last summer, and not happy with weights on a lot. Bolused & drenched at tupping and been flying ever since. Not seen roots yet as grass has kept growing slowly on their block and still been rotating round to clear it up.

 

[Man_in_black]

50 Ewes to Lleyn shearling: 198%

What's your single/multiple break down in that Neil?

 

[neilo]

What's your single/multiple break down in that Neil?

In that group:
barren- 1
single- 8
twin- 32
triplet- 9

Jury's still out on Lleyns though. There were 9 pedigree Lleyns in the ewe lambs I scanned. Nice enough sheep but certainly haven't done as well over the winter as the Highlanders, NZ Texels and Charollais x Highlanders running with them. We'll see....