Scanning our pregnant sheep

Our rams meet their selected 35 ewes on the 4th November and by January they should be in lamb and the embryos large enough to see on a scanner - just like we use for human pregnancies!All is ready to go and Gus Dermody -of "One Man and His Dog" TV fame - comes with his portable scanning equipment in a trailer behind his Landrover. He wheels it all into position while we pen our sheep in the shed with a tried and trusted system of gates to push them towards the race and ramp. The first sheep trot dociley up the ramp to be scanned - the older sheep have done this before so are quite happy to oblige but the young ones sometimes resist fiercely and one or two old hands are just by nature stroppy and make a fuss!More often than not Nic has to push them and sometimes he even has to climb in behind a particularly stubborn sheep and push her up to Gus!This is how it should proceed - all nice and orderly and peaceful. Gus marks each sheep with a special mark to show whether they are having twins or a single lamb or- worst case scenario- are barren. He puts the scanning paddle underneath their belllies as they stand above him on the platform and he is so skilled that it is done in a second, he pulls a handle, the gate in front of the sheep opens and out she bounds to join her friends.Amazing how quickly a sheep can move when liberation is at hand and her friends are waiting in sight. This is Gus Dermody in action with a sheep standing on the platform just above and next to him in his rather cramped control box with the scanner screen in front of him. We scan in a building but often he will be in a field with improvised gates and the rain coming down, so his little shelter is vital.Scanning the sheep is now an important part of our management as Nic separates the singles and feeds them some minerals with molasses but the twins get extra hay and molasses mix as they need the extra cossetting for healthy lambs. In the past we fed them all the same rations with the result that we got enormous single lambs who often had to be helped at birthing which is not good for the sheep. I'm in charge of keeping the vital front pen full of sheep so that they trot happily into the race and up the ramp onto Gus's platform next to the scanner -that's the theory anyway. The end is in sight with the last few to be scanned and the cup of tea soon to be enjoyed.

I hope you like the latest in farm fashion that I am wearing. The anorack was left by our first lodger, Jonathan, almost 20 years ago and it is still my trusty friend when working with the sheep or gardening and I even wash it occassionally! The beanie says South Africa on it and was a reject from our son who voted it "uncool" many years ago but I love it as it fits so snugly - it's drafty in the sheds.Poor Jess looks decidedly uncomfortable and a little embarrassed to be so overwhelmed by the sheep she is normally in control of!We have to tie Jess up while we are scanning as she would stop the sheep coming out of the scanning machine and make them nervous so, for all our nerves, she is tied in the adjacent bit of the sheep building where she can see the action but not interfere.

In this picture we have put all the sheep in with her ready to separate into singles and twins and we did liberate her just after this picture was taken.

All is back to normal and the trusty little Massey Ferguson red tractor of 1963 vintage is back under cover.

When I first visited the farm during haymaking way back in 1972, Nic put me on this little tractor in a field with a steep slope and with a hay turning machine on behind it and set me off rowing up the hay - I was absolutely petrified and convinced it would turn over on the steep bankside. It now has roll bars as a precaution but I leave tractor work to Nic as a car is much more to my liking!