Sheep scanning 2022
Bella Goggin
Another day on the farm and in my five weeks volunteering here so far, no two days have been the same. Last Thursday, with lambing season on the horizon, it was time for Plaw Hatch to have the flock of pregnant ewes scanned to find out what to expect come April time. It’s a process that takes careful thought to prepare the set up, which is so important to the success of it and is the most time consuming part.
The scanning itself is very fast when done in expert hands which was impressive to witness! Each ewe was herded onto the trailer for a quick ultrasound to see how many little ones are in her womb, which certainly takes a trained eye to tell. I personally couldn’t make heads or tails of it, literally, but enjoyed watching the wavy black and white lines on the screen nevertheless. Just a few seconds per ewe and then onto the next. Some of them needed a bit of convincing to move forward but were happy once they had run back into a fresh field of grass!
At the end of it all we had a tally of how many lambs are on their way and it was a great result. With this insight the team here are able to prepare as best as possible, separating the sheep by how many lambs they're carrying so they can keep an eye on their condition and how much they're eating. I am so happy to be here for the next few months helping on the farm and can’t wait to see those wavy black and white lines become bleating lambs.
Scanning is an important point in the shepherding year. The results for this year are:
21 singles, 34 twins, no triplets, 5 ewes without = 148%
It's a good result and means lambing will hopefully take four weeks. We should start seeing the first lambs around the end of March.
