MEAT & Livestock Australia (MLA) and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) have released a range of new resources to help producers scan and manage pregnant ewes.<\/p>\n
The new resources are the result of a multi-year co-investment between MLA and AWI aimed to improve lamb survival and reproductive rates in the Australian sheep flock through better adoption of pregnancy scanning.<\/p>\n
The background research was completed by The University of Adelaide and included many industry consultants in the project team.<\/p>\n
In 2018, an MLA-funded survey of Australian sheep producers determined 69 per cent of respondents did not pregnancy scan their ewe flocks for litter size.<\/p>\n
According to project manager for sheep and goat productivity at MLA, Dr Daniel Forwood, this limits a producer’s capacity to maximise lamb and ewe survival.<\/p>\n
“Pregnancy scanning is a vital tool for improving sheep reproductive performance, it enables identification of litter size early in pregnancy, so that multiple-bearing ewes can be differentially managed to meet recommended condition score targets and increase survival,” Dr Forwood said.<\/p>\n
Research shows pregnancy scanning in sheep provides an average increase in profit of $5.55\/ewe scanned.<\/p>\n
By customising ewe nutrition during pregnancy and lactation according to whether ewes are carrying singles or multiples, producers can help to reduce lamb and ewe mortality.<\/p>\n
As part of the project, AWI general Manager for Research, Bridget Peachey, said that AWI and MLA conducted an extensive benefit cost analysis on the value of scanning across a range of sheep producing regions and enterprise types.<\/p>\n
“In addition, the two organisations undertook a series of grower interviews and surveys to create a better understanding of the barriers to adoption of pregnancy scanning, then develop solutions to overcome these barriers,” Ms Peachey said.<\/p>\n
“Important to increasing producer adoption is having a detailed business case for pregnancy scanning which is applicable to different production environments and enterprise types, producer needs and resource availability.”<\/p>\n