Halghton Hall Project Update

Scanning results:

On 3 January, ewe lambs were scanned along with the yearlings. The ram had been in with the ewe lambs for three weeks, with teaser rams in for the previous two weeks. Usually, the rams would have stayed in longer so that the animals would get two cycles, but this year, for personal reasons, the Lewis family wanted to finish lambing earlier.  Therefore, they decided to only give the ewe lambs one cycle to conceive, resulting in a disappointing overall conception rate of 57% in the ewe lambs.
 

There was a higher percentage of ewe lambs empty this year due to the early removal of rams.

Despite the low conception rate there is a definite pattern showing that the heavier animals scanned better. The ewe lambs were weighed in on 26 September and split into three weight groups, under 41kg, 41 – 45kg and over 45kg. At scanning, a representative percentage of animals from each weight group were weighed to see by how much weights had changed. The average weight of each group now was 40.8kg, 44.4kg and 47.8kg respectively. Kate Phillips noted in the meeting back in November that the desired weight for the ewe lambs would be 50kg when the rams went in. Not reaching this target weight could have contributed to the lower conception rates. Nevertheless, this gives us a guide and a benchmark to build on for the next breeding programme in October.