Ultrasound pregnancy scanning allows farmers to identify the number of foetuses carried by individual ewes and manage feeding accordingly. This information has significant welfare benefits for both ewes and lambs.
Pregnancy scanning is a welfare investment that prevents significant downstream suffering. Pregnancy toxaemia in unscanned ewes carrying multiple foetuses is painful, debilitating, and frequently fatal - all preventable through appropriate nutrition once lamb number is known. The brief handling stress of scanning is vastly outweighed by the welfare benefit of preventing metabolic disease. Farms that scan achieve lower rates of ewes losing condition, lower lamb mortality, and lower veterinary costs, demonstrating that welfare and economics align when prevention is prioritised.