Sheep scanning accuracy

[Toms820]

So this is the first year we’ve ever scanned our sheep and so far the accuracy isn’t what I would call acceptable. I’ve lambed 19 sheep out of 150 and so far the scanner we’ve used has gotten 5 wrong. I could be wrong and it could just be these first few but the way it’s going I can’t see it.

How accurate is scanning in reality

 

[hoff135]

Normally 99.5% occasionally our scanner misses a lamb, normally scans a twin but has 3.

 

[Mc115reed]

There’s a few factors that can make for a bad scan… did you decide when they’re gonna scan them or your scanner? Different scanners prefer too scan at different pregnancy stages.. but some farmers seem too tell scanners when they want them done..
they’ll always scan better if they’re hungry but that isn’t always possible…
But my scanners missed about 10 lambs in the last 5-6 years
Is your scanner new to scanning? Because if they are youv gotta cut them some slack really they’ll not learn without people giving them a chance

 

[Moors Lad]

Was he long established or fairly new to the job? That sounds pretty sh*te to me unless they were too far in lamb at scanning or possibly too full of food.... Did the scanner make any comments about the state of the sheep the day it was done?

 

[Jerry]

Last few years, 1 wrong. Scanned as a quad but dropped 5 so I’m not blaming scanner fur missing that.

Had a scanner 7 years ago, different to my current chap. His marks in the ewes were a waste of spray paint. Bloody useless

 

[M-J-G]

Our man might scan a twin that has 3, but it's only 1 in every 200 or so.
He says himself that it's all down to timing.
He comes to do ours at around 10 weeks, so I assume that's what suits him best.

 

[Norfolk Hill Farmer]

Did the scanner mark them himself ? could the person applying the marker spray be getting in a muddle ? just a thought.
our guy does them himself 99.9% accurate.

 

[Toms820]

There’s a few factors that can make for a bad scan… did you decide when they’re gonna scan them or your scanner? Different scanners prefer too scan at different pregnancy stages.. but some farmers seem too tell scanners when they want them done..
they’ll always scan better if they’re hungry but that isn’t always possible…
But my scanners missed about 10 lambs in the last 5-6 years
Is your scanner new to scanning? Because if they are youv gotta cut them some slack really they’ll not learn without people giving them a chance

So the scanner asked us when we chucked the rams in and then set the scanning date according to that which was about 70 days. It’s his second year and he said he scans 20,000 plus sheep a year so I would hope after that he’d be fairly good plus the cost of the equipment he was exposing. I’d except 1-2 wrong for the amount of sheep I’ve lambed so far but getting 5 wrong so far is making me worry about how many more are going to be wrong.

Did the scanner mark them himself ? could the person applying the marker spray be getting in a muddle ? just a thought.
our guy does them himself 99.9% accurate.

He marks them him self. So far with his scanning I’ve worked it out roughly to be
73.6% accurate pretty far out from some of the % accuracy on here

 

[Mc115reed]

So the scanner asked us when we chucked the rams in and then set the scanning date according to that which was about 70 days. It’s his second year and he said he scans 20,000 plus sheep a year so I would hope after that he’d be fairly good plus the cost of the equipment he was exposing. I’d except 1-2 wrong for the amount of sheep I’ve lambed so far but getting 5 wrong so far is making me worry about how many more are going to be wrong.



He marks them him self. So far with his scanning I’ve worked it out roughly to be
73.6% accurate pretty far out from some of the % accuracy on here

I’d be very suprised if a man in his second year scanning had 20,000 sheep in his round but I’d still cut him a little slack these lads need 3-4 years before they’re going to be where they need too be but they need people too give them a chance too learn too or else we will have no sheep scanners at all

 

[puppet]

Everyone has to learn but at 75% accuracy you might be culling sheep that are actually in lamb.
Our 2 scanners may get 1 wrong out of 250 every third year. But they may have scanned around a million sheep in various countries

 

[Wood field]

For what it’s worth, I just text our scanner with the date I put tups in, he books me in on appropriate day and I’ve no complaints
Same scanner got a bit of bad rep from a.n.other farm but I think it was a last minute “ hey can you scan these sheep” job
As said above everyone has to learn and improve with experience

 

[M-J-G]

So the scanner asked us when we chucked the rams in and then set the scanning date according to that which was about 70 days. It’s his second year and he said he scans 20,000 plus sheep a year so I would hope after that he’d be fairly good plus the cost of the equipment he was exposing. I’d except 1-2 wrong for the amount of sheep I’ve lambed so far but getting 5 wrong so far is making me worry about how many more are going to be wrong.



He marks them him self. So far with his scanning I’ve worked it out roughly to be
73.6% accurate pretty far out from some of the % accuracy on here

If he has built it 20 thousands sheep after only being a scanner for a year and he's only getting ¾ of them right he'll be doing less going forward.

Is anyone feeding this information back to him?
Our scanner has been doing it for years, but he says it's a thing that a lot of people aren't able to get good at and it's made more difficult due to the fact that it's difficult to know if you're getting them right or not because you tend not to get much feedback in the short term.

 

[M-J-G]

Everyone has to learn but at 75% accuracy you might be culling sheep that are actually in lamb.
Our 2 scanners may get 1 wrong out of 250 every third year. But they may have scanned around a million sheep in various countries

You'd hope he'd only be getting numbers wrong, if he's failing to pick up pregnancies he's pretty bad.

 

[Guiggs]

I’d be very suprised if a man in his second year scanning had 20,000 sheep in his round but I’d still cut him a little slack these lads need 3-4 years before they’re going to be where they need too be but they need people too give them a chance too learn too or else we will have no sheep scanners at all

I guess it depends if he's scanning at a reduced rate while he perfects his trade or if he's charging as much as someone thats 99% accurate as too how much slack you cut him!

 

[neilo]

I've had the same fella scanning mine since we moved here in 2012. Scanning about 750 a year, I can only recall about 3 that have been wrong in that time (one of those was a quin, scanned for a 4, so I'll let him off that one).
Maybe I've been lucky, but the two I had back home previous to that were equally accurate. I do always try to have them empty before he turns up, which likely helps, but they have all been very good at the job.

As for learning on the job, a friend started up doing it a few years ago and I let him come and do my early lambers for a coupe of years. The first year he set his crate up behind an experienced scanner's crate, who checked every one and they discussed any mistakes. He wasn't far out to be fair, but obviously taking his time to get them right, which made it a slow job (hence he only did the early mob of 150). I certainly wouldn't pay someone to do that though.
He spent the next few years doing mostly little flocks that nobody else wanted in an attempt to build up a round, but has now given up.

There's something fishy about anyone claiming to do 20,000 in their second year IMO, especially when the results are no better than a decent shepherd can get with condition scoring alone. It reminds me of a fella that we used once, when 'stand up' scanning first came in, after having a flier under the windscreen wiper at Gloucester market. He came out and scanned ours and appeared very confident. We were well chuffed at this new system, where we didn't have to turn every sheep over for scanning (like in the good old days!), as it was so much easier on man and sheep, and fast with it.
When we got to lambing I reckon he had about 50% right. We later found out that it was his first year at it, but he was a first rate blagger. He didn't come back, and he had packed it in soon after.

 

[Estate fencing.]

We had one wrong last year out of 1450, he got knocked out for a few seconds by a ewe hitting in the side of the head so I will let him off that one, he would be one of the most experienced scanners.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

We always end up scanning very late due to sheep being wintered away in different places.
Our scanner is happy to do these close to lambing and is incredibly accurate considering some will be less than 4 weeks off lambing.
He doesn't guarantee to find all triplets but gets all empties, singles and twins and any very late.

 

[Jonp]

I've had the same scanner for over 10 years, since he started up really, always accurate and has a huge customer base in the area which says it all. A very well respected sheep farmer too.

 

[Joe]

Fella that comes here is more or less 100% scanning over 15 years here and cant really remember getting more than 1 or 2 wrong in that time and you could set your watch by him as well. He hurt his back one year for the early lambers and got a well know fella in and most have got 40% wrong, never again.