Saving by scanning

There are more advantages to using an ultrasound scanner on sheep than simply saving money, as this article showed.

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Ultrasound scanning of ewes for pregnancy between 42 and 100 days more than pays for itself in reduced feeding costs of singletonbearing ewes and those that aren’t in-lamb.

There are many more important advantages, however, says Dr. Ian Herbst, a veterinarian from Caledon, Western Cape, who, together with his colleague, Dr Ricky Wilson, pioneered commercial scanning in South Africa in 1985.

“Identification of the ewes that aren’t in-lamb saves feeding costs in areas such as Caledon, where supplementary feed is given to in-lamb and lambing ewes,” Herbst explains.

“Feeding costs are 40c/kg [about R2,90/kg], so if ewes are given 500g a day for 100 days, it costs R20 [R145] per ewe (R20 000 [R145 000] for 100 days for a 1 000 ewe flock). If the ewes are given 250g a day for the same period, it costs R10 [R73] per ewe or R10 000 [R73 000] for the flock.

“With 10% dry ewes in a flock of 1 000, the costs of feeding dry ewes will unnecessarily amount to R2 000 [R14 500] at 500g/ewe/day, and at 250g/ewe/day, it will cost R1 000 [R7 300], excluding the costs of the licks, and so on,” says Herbst.

“Scanning presently costs R1,80