Scanning ewes at around halfway through pregnancy is extremely important as it enables producers to manage feed requirements and the results can be used to assess the “health” of a sheep enterprise, according to sheep levy payers’ organisation EBLEX.

Scanned ewes can be separated according to feed requirement, which can reduce the total feed bill and help avoid metabolic problems around lambing time.

Scanning percentage, which is usually calculated by the scanner, can then be used as a measure of the overall health of the enterprise. The figure is calculated from the total numbers of lambs scanned and dividing it by the number of ewes put to the tup, then multiplying it by 100 to get a percentage.