One of the most important jobs that is done during the sheep’s pregnancy is scanning. It is exactly like a human going to the hospital for an ultrasound scan, but for sheep, the scanner comes to the farm!  

Scanning is carried out roughly between 70-90 days after the tups were introduced to the ewes, but this can vary from farm to farm. The scanner can tell the farmer if each ewe is in lamb and if so, how many lambs she is carrying. This is important information for the farmer as the more lambs a ewe is carrying, the more feed the ewe will need to enable her to meet her own energy requirements as well as those of her unborn lambs. 

On our farm, we batch all the sheep that are just carrying a single lamb into one group and they are put in a field on their own with some pre-lambing tubs, which contain lots of vitamins, minerals and extra energy.  

Anything carrying twins or triplets are put in a separate group and are given plenty of grazing as well as tubs and additionally, they receive some special ewe pellets, every day, from 6-8 weeks before lambing until they give birth. Because the grass, during the winter months, does not contain the same nutrition as in the spring/summer months, the pellets compensate for this. They contain a high amount of energy as, during these last few weeks of pregnancy, the lambs do most of their growing and can really ‘zap’ the energy from the ewes. If the ewe cannot take in sufficient feed to satisfy both her and her lambs energy requirements then she will quickly begin to lose condition, she will not produce sufficient, good quality colostrum (first milk) and can quite often die so, it really is important that we look after their feed requirements properly to ensure a healthy, happy ewe and healthy newborn lambs. 

The weather can also play a huge part in the ewe’s condition at this time of year. They don’t really mind the cold because of their thick fleeces, but if we get a lot of snow, like earlier this year and the grass is completely covered, we have to make sure the ewes receive enough food so we will take bales of hay out to them in the fields to ensure they have a plentiful supply. It’s a busy, busy time! 

Here we’ve got a fantastic video showing ‘scanning day’ with the Brunton family!