Sheep pregnancy scanning has become an annual pilgrimage for Welshman Steve.
Steve Lloyd has been pregnancy scanning ewes for over 25 years. He has scanned in the UK, Norway and across New Zealand for the last 20 years. 2023 is his 6th season with the Vet Services team.
Steve loves returning to Hawke’s Bay each year to catch up with friends and clientele, and to enjoy the local hospitality. He is particularly fond of The Bays’ ‘great sausage rolls’.
Since 2017 the avid Spurs fan has scanned over 600,000 thousands of ewes and hoggets across over 65 Hawke’s Bay farms.
When he’s at home sheep are Steve’s full time occupation and golf and football are his hobbies. The UK sheep scanning season runs from mid November to mid February and Steve’s scanning jobs stretch from Pembrokeshire up to the Cotswolds and across to Herefordshire. When that’s finished, Steve is kept busy with Welsh lambing jobs until early May.
Steve is also a well known shearer and has shorn sheep all over the world. He completed 24 seasons in Switzerland, and has shorn in France, Italy, Norway, Australia and New Zealand. He was the English Shearing Champion 20 times!
2023 MID SEASON UPDATE
The feedback from the first half of the scanning this year has been extremely encouraging; lots of multiples, low empty rates and ewes in terrific body condition. Some hard numbers will follow in due course.
Waipukurau
- MA ewes 170% with 4.5% dry
- 2th ewes 155% with 6% dry
Hastings
- MA ewes 165% with 5.5% dry2
- 2th ewes 155% with 7% dry
We are so lucky to have such a fantastic team of scanners and helpers putting in some big shifts at this time of year. They’re usually first out of the clinic and last to return home and more often than not clock up in excess of 3,000 ewes a day.
If you have any questions about ewe scanning or you need to make changes to your booking please get in touch with your local production animal team.
*Photo taken by Marlow Genetics:
