Ultrasound pregnancy scanning enables targeted nutrition for sheep based on litter size, significantly reducing metabolic disease and improving neonatal lamb welfare.
Pregnancy scanning is one of the highest-impact single interventions available for sheep welfare. By identifying litter size, it enables targeted nutritional management that prevents pregnancy toxemia in high-risk ewes and avoids overfat singles that experience difficult lambings. The welfare return is substantial: fewer ewes dying from metabolic disease, fewer lambs lost to nutritional deficiency, and better-planned supervision during lambing. Operations that scan their flocks demonstrate superior welfare outcomes compared to those managing all ewes uniformly without knowledge of litter size.