Ultrasound pregnancy scanning in sheep allows targeted nutrition management that dramatically improves both ewe and lamb welfare around lambing.
Pregnancy scanning represents a straightforward example of where simple technology produces dramatic welfare improvements. Ewes carrying triplets have energy requirements far beyond those carrying a single lamb. Without knowing how many lambs each ewe is carrying, farmers must choose between over-feeding singletons (causing obesity and difficult births) or under-feeding triplet-bearing ewes (causing pregnancy toxaemia and neonatal death). Pregnancy toxaemia in ewes causes progressive weakness, collapse, coma and death - a painful, entirely preventable welfare disaster. Scanning allows precision nutrition that protects ewes from metabolic disease and gives lambs the best start in life. The welfare return on investment from scanning is among the highest of any management intervention in sheep farming.