Farmer use and experience of ultrasonic pregnancy scanning

T.J. McAtamney and S. McAtamney

Greenfield Road, Greenfield South Otago, New Zealand

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Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production. 1999, 59: 97-98

Ultrasonic pregnancy scanning has enabled better feed allocation and lambing management of our breeding flock. In the past two years, scanning has also identified many of the triplet-bearing ewes but there is a need to develop more effective systems for managing these ewes. We attribute much of the 18% increase in lambing percentage over the past four years to improved management based on scanning results. Scanning also has benefits in the genetic improvement of the flock and we envisage in the near future selecting all replacements from twin-bearing and triplet-bearing ewes that have lambed as hoggets and subsequently never had more than one single birth.

Keywords: NZSAPAB; Sheep; lambing percentage; pregnancy scanning

Last Updated 06-08-1999