HOW did your scanning go – that is a big question on most sheep farmers lips as flockmasters begin to look forward to their spring crop of lambs.

'No major disasters', seems to be the party line from those in the know – the scanners. People out doing scannings just now, up and down the country, report that while it may not be a bumper year, things are going well, sheep are in good fettle and in general, farmers are getting results that they can be happy with.

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Aberdeenshire scanner, Rory Gregor, said: “The early lambers didn’t scan overly well, which I put down to the dry summer. Sheep are scanning very well at the minute, however, and it will be interesting to see whether the mid-November tupped lots were affected by the incredibly wet spell.

"Sheep are generally in good condition, with many over fat which will have a negative effect towards lambing. Interestingly, my machine keeps a running total year on year and the overall scanning percentage sits at 167% for lowland, upland and hoggs and this does not fluctuate by a single percent – so the answer to the million dollar question, ‘how are sheep scanning this year’ is that on average it's exactly the same as every other year!”

Ian Farquhar, who also scans in the North-east, echoed Rory's sentiments, adding: “Scanning is very similar to previous years. Slight ups and down in some places but not a lot of difference.

"The sheep are fit and look well coming through winter with some really fat ewes on the go. The snow didn’t look to make a big difference to their condition.”

Results seem to be coming out well further south in the country, too.

The Sheep Game's Cammy Wilson was heading to his fifth scanning job of the day, when he spoke to The SF. He'd been working around Strathaven and Lanark, and explained that this season's job wasn't going badly, but it wasn't perfect, either.

"If I was being honest, I would say that things are looking to be more back, than forward, on the year, numbers wise. Nothing drastic, but I would say that a lot of places are in single digits down on the year, but certainly not enough for folk to be worrying," he said.

"Even with all the terrible weather we have had, there are no warning signals of any disasters, like the fluke problems we saw a few years ago. Years like that are devastating for farmers and scanners, alike.

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"You sometimes feel like a bit of a counsellor when you do someone's scanning and you feel a lot of pressure on what you see on that wee screen. There's nothing worse than giving people bad news, so this year is going fine as sheep seem to be in good fettle!" he added.

David Gray scanned 16,000 in the Borders last week and has a busy time ahead of him, scanning locally, and up as far as Blair Atholl, until March. He's also quite positive about what he's been seeing.

He said: "Just from observation, I would say that there are more empty, and there are fewer triplets. I would also say that in some places there as been a bit more re-absorption, whether that's maybe been because of the snow there was, I don't know."

"Hoggs are scanning tremendous, though. I couldn't give you a reason why, but everyone's hoggs are flying. There are fewer 200%'ers than previous years, but things are far from a bad go. Most people are quite happy.

"I'm not up into the hills yet, that'll be in the next few weeks, so we'll see what's to come there. Sheep are in surprisingly good form.

"I was concerned about our own, but couldn't believe how fit they were when it came to scanning. Everyone is talking about their ewes being back, but I don't actually think they are.

"People are also talking about a lack of grass after weaning and a wet tupping, but I would say things are actually OK," he said.