The red meat sector always seems to be waiting for the next big thing. History has shown us this method does not deliver as promised most of time and there are significant gains to be made within the farm gate before we need to go looking outside it.
As scanning approaches, there is an opportunity to Body Condition Score (BCS) ewes as they go through the scanning crate rather than use the eye-o-meter.
Historically we have used the eye-o-meter as a great tool to take off the obvious ewes that are either mud fat or super skinny during the winter. However, even though we have had a great autumn, don't assume how they look correlates to a good ewe condition.
Several farmers have been disappointed once they have put a hand on their ewes. Body condition scoring is a skill that is learnt so if you haven't had the opportunity to be shown how to do it properly, I encourage you to hunt out someone who has and learn from them. Best hour of your time you will have invested that week.
At scanning we can use the rule of thumb to draft off ewes that are BCS 3 or better and those BCS less than 2.