Reports of 'patchy' scanning rates across sheep producing areas

Elders senior livestock production advisor Rob Inglis, Wagga Wagga, NSW said scanning rates had been "quite patchy".

"Anyone who joined in November had quite poor results," he said.

"The December/January joinings have been good but then those later joinings in February and March have been on the disappointing side again depending on circumstance.

"Those who didn't feed in late January and February I think will be disappointed in their results."

Mr Inglis said pastoral areas of NSW had seen better scanning results due to lower stock rates and a better selection of feed, while areas such as the Eastern Riverina of NSW and north east Victoria had faced challenges.

"We're looking up to 40 per cent empty ewes in some areas," he said.

"Those that joined in December and January were on a rising plane of nutrition so their scanning rates have been very good, 160 to 170pc in the best of cases in crossbreds and in Merinos it's 130 to 140pc potential.

"So that's high twinning rates, 50 to 60pc multiples in a lot of cases.

"In the November joinings we again saw quite a few multiples, but a lot of empties... getting either multiple pregnancies or none at all.

"The single percentage has been very low."

Mr Inglis said the variation in scanning rates had been more exaggerated by late spring and early summer rains.

"Anyone who joins in late spring, November in particular, have fallen foul of these late rains," he said.

"For the last four or five years we've had November rain, which has ruined most of the dry feed and you get the green growth which can be quite toxic to embryos.

"With the later joinings, by December that green pick has usually hayed off and they're back onto a more even plane of nutrition.

"It's becoming a common theme with these wet summers.

"In late spring they're not at their most fertile... they don't really start to hit peak fertility until late January so by joining in November and December, you are sort of fighting against nature at kick off and any little set back like too much green feed can really compound the problem."

Mr Inglis said ultimately those producers who had contained their ewes during joining and early pregnancy and saved their lambing paddocks had better odds when it came to survival with plenty of challenges during the perinatal period posing risks.

"We've got plenty of producers in the Eastern Riviera that are lambing or about to lamb... it's a bit of a perfect storm at the moment," he said.

"We've got short green pick in a lot of paddocks, which is quite toxic, very high in nitrates and very high in potassium.

"We've had three or four wet years in a row... albeit we had a reasonably hot, dry autumn... we haven't really cleaned a lot of our country up like we do in a normal hot, dry summer so there's quite a heavy residual worm burden that's been carried over."

Mr Inglis said he had also heard that scanning results for some of the March joinings had proved quite disappointing.

"We may not have seen the full picture yet," he said.

"There was bit of a spike in flock numbers when a lot of sheep came over from Western Australia in 2019 and 2020... a lot of those ewes have now reached the end of their productive life so I would expect to see the eastern flock numbers see a bit a drop off.

"Although there does continue to be a swing from Merinos to composite breeds or shedding breeds that are a bit more fecund... what we've lost in ewe numbers we may be picking up in lamb numbers because of the higher fertility rates of some of these composite breeds.

"Getting them pregnant can be relatively easy, it's getting them to the marking cradle that can be the challenge and in a year like this if they're not managed properly, there could be quite a big drop off between scanned in lamb and what actually reaches the marking cradle."

HLR Scanning operator Hayley Reading, based in the Wimmera region of Victoria said she had seen scanning rates in February around the 130 to 140pc mark.

"For the wet/dry scanning, it's around that 85-90pc scanned in lamb," she said.

Ms Reading said beyond getting scanning results, it has then been a challenge for producers to work on survival during harsh conditions in the first six months of this years.

"I know for myself, because I work on a family farm as well... it is tough," she said.

"I know all the older sheep have done really well, they seem to know how to handle the situations especially if they're on feed and hay... but maiden ewes have probably struggled the most.

"Their percentages of survival rates have been down I'd say.

Ms Reading said this year hadn't seen everyone's scanning rates ease though, with one farmer she'd visited recently seeing scanning rates up by about 20pc from last year.

"Anything that happened in that first half of the year wasn't too bad, though less than last year but going forward in this second half if they're getting ready to lamb, they're definitely up," she said.

"It all just comes down to when they lamb, bloodlines and other factors.

"The ewes that we're scanning now, the rates seem to be higher than what we initially thought because it hasn't been ideal circumstances to be joining on, it is dry."

Ms Reading said for the ewes with better scanning rates earlier in the year, lamb survival could still be impacted due to the lack of rain from January through to marking time causing nutrition challenges.