Muscle and fat scanning has well and truly taken off for the 2019 scanning season with 50 plus flocks being scanned so far.

Once Sheep Ireland received notice where breeders wished to scan, we then calculated the ideal scanning date for each flock by looking at the average date of birth of the lambs born. The majority of lambs should be over 40kg at the time of scheduled scanning and under 180 days of age. Sheep Ireland then contact breeders over the following weeks to arrange a suitable time.

Please read the criteria that must be met before Sheep Ireland can scan your lambs by clicking here. Note: Lambs MUST be tagged with official NSIS tags, where no lambs are tagged Sheep Ireland will leave the premises without scanning any lambs.

Sheep Ireland have updated their muscle and fat scanning method this year, after conducting research trials last year. Sheep Ireland are now using the UK muscle and fat scanning method which proved to be a more universal and accurate method when compared to the traditional Irish method used in the past. Breeders should not be alarmed by the new measurements taken as they will be different to scores to previous years but should be reassured that these are accurate. Sheep Ireland’s technicians have been intensively trained on this new method, with correlation training also included. Muscle and fat scores are raw data that feeds straight into genetic evaluations, where they are interpreted into the index’s.