Jenni Liddiard first contacted us in the spring of 2021, wanting to find the right ultrasound machine with which to scan her sheep and pygmy goats. For Jenni, it is important to confirm pregnancy in order to manage feeding. Overfeeding her animals is not only costly, but can also create a vicious cycle whereby they are then more difficult to breed the following year. She also would like to be able to estimate numbers, as pregnancy toxaemia is a particular risk with larger litters and, in Jenni’s experience, has always proved fatal. The risks can be reduced by correct feeding, if you know in advance that you are expecting quads or triplets.

Jenni faces a similar challenge to so many of our goat and sheep smallholders around the world: she only needs to scan for a few months of each year. That means that the time between her packing her scanner away at the end of scanning season, and taking it back out again, can be over six months.

Although Jenni is affectionately known as “the Jersey Sheep Lady” – a nickname she embraces and has used as the title of her recently published book on how she built her farm – she actually has a medical background, and is a qualified radiographer. Yet, even she is not immune to the fact that a lack of regular ultrasound exposure undermines confidence, and this is a particular problem for our goat and sheep breeder clients, whose scanning work is so seasonal.

Here at PUM, we support every client in getting to know their machine, providing a second opinion on images, and can even organise a live Zoom call if people are struggling with any of the controls on their machine. This year, Jenni decided she’d benefit from an in-person second opinion on her technique and interpretation, and so – after three years of communicating by email – I flew to Jersey to meet her for the first time.

Field Farm

The first task upon arriving at Jenni and her husband’s immaculate Field Farm (after a cup of tea) was to scan her Welsh Lleyn ewes. We were assisted by her husband, David, and another local sheep farmer, Jeremy. Having recently lost a ewe to pregnancy toxaemia, he was very interested in learning what insights ultrasound was able to provide.

At first, we ran the sheep through a chute and into a squeeze, scanning each one from the ewe’s right hand side. After the first few, however, Jenni found that it was easier to sit behind the sheep, finding a similar position inside the leg. She found the smaller, slimmer microconvex probe of the Apogee 1000 Lite much more maneuverable for this than the convex probe she is used to using with her ScanX. Unfortunately, a microconvex probe would not be suitable for her to equip with her ScanX ultrasound machine, because it would lack the penetration she requires for her bigger sheep. The Apogee 1000 Lite is rather unique in this regard, in that it has a microconvex probe that is also capable of the greater penetration generally required for scanning sheep.

Before we began scanning, Jenni had admired the speed at which professional sheep scanners can confirm pregnancy, but by the end of her own sheep Jenni was confidently confirming or excluding pregnancy within a few seconds! Happily, the majority of Jenni’s sheep were pregnant, and with Jenni’s scanning speed we were able to stop for lunch just as the wind was beginning to whip up.

After lunch, it was time for the pygmy goats. Jenni had scanned all of them previously with her ScanX and not found any evidence of pregnancy. I was confident that there was no fault with Jenni’s scanning abilities, and we were (unfortunately) going to find the same – and we did.

The failure of the male to perform poses a unique challenge for Jenni living on the island of Jersey, because access to male pygmy goats is very limited – indeed, there is only one! Importing another male involves a lot of paperwork, expense, and a long quarantine period, even if importing from nearby Guernsey.

Overall, it was a fun and educational day, and Jenni got to try different probes and machines. She plans to upgrade to the Apogee 1000 Lite towards the end of the year when breeding season comes around again, trading in her existing unit (the ScanX) to make the upgrade more affordable.