Sheep scanners across the country are reporting to be generally picking up more singles in lowland and half-bred flocks than they would have previously in the build-up to the 2023 lambing season.

However, most are also reporting a drop in the number of empty ewes and referring to scans as turning up “not great, but OK” rates.

Ewes are said to be mostly in good condition, especially on farms where farmers reduced stock numbers in recent years, but there are some exceptions on holdings which cut back significantly on fertiliser usage this year.

The scanners who spoke with the Irish Farmers Journal stated that many customers are talking about reducing the concentrates fed to in-lamb ewes, given the expected smaller lamb crop.

A considerable number of farmers were said to have pushed back their lambing date, hoping to get away with feeding less meal too.

Scanner Damian Walsh, who covers flocks across the north-west, noticed that rams went out later on many farms in 2022.

“Ewes are in good condition, except maybe in the places that cut back on fertiliser at the end of the summer. There is just less grass on these farms,” Walsh commented.

“It is looking like there are not so many empties, but more singles and less couples. Triplets do seem to be up as well.”

In the midlands, Liam Dunne was seeing scans as reflective of what they were in other years.

“I would say they are holding their own. There’s nothing too major. You will get the occasional poorer spot, no different to any other year, but I’m not seeing any major fall off as some scanners are.”

Kerry-based scanner Stephen McCarthy told the Irish Farmers Journal that the scanning season “wasn’t going too bad”.

“There were a lot of lads that only left ewes three weeks with the ram and the results are good considering this, especially on empties,” McCarthy said. “The early lambers did seem a bit back though in some places and couples are back a bit in general.”

In Munster, Charles O’Shea has found conception rates to be OK, but numbers do appear to be back somewhat on previous years.

“The ewes aren’t bad for the weather they had. On empties, they don’t seem bad. Couples are back a bit I would say,” commented O’Shea.