If you are a rancher who is keen on enhancing and streamlining your ranching activities, you may want to consider implementing a livestock scale in your ranch. Livestock scales help in accurately weighing your grains, cattle, sheep or goats. They can also help determine the health of your livestock by monitoring their weight gain or loss. By keeping the records of your livestock weights, you can get an idea if you are heading for profits or losses. For even more accurate results, a farmer could do daily weighing of the animals in order to record daily weight changes. Investing in the right livestock scale requires one to look at features of various scales available in the market and decide which one best suits your needs.
Consider the following tips before choosing a livestock scale
- Portable or Permanent Scales
You can choose to weigh your livestock on either a portable installation system or a permanent one, depending on which one best fits the needs of your operations. The portable installation tends to be more popular due to its flexible setting which allows you to have the scale in a convenient location at the time the weighing in needed. Setting up its scale system is easy as well. All you have to do is mount the load cells beneath the squeeze chutes. These scale types do not have to be installed on concrete; even gravel surfaces work.
On the other hand, permanent scales are used in cases where you need to measure weights of a group of animals. They are typically installed on concrete for stability. A stationary livestock scale may also have a customized platform that is gated for the purposes of containing the group of animals being weighed.
- Platform Requirements
Regardless of whether you use portable or permanent installation, you need to know the correct size of your platform. A useful feature is a platform that is connected to an alleyway. This helps with getting the livestock safely onto the scale faster and easier. A rubber mat would also be something to consider as it offers better traction and reduces noise.
- Compatibility with Your Current Cattle Management Software
Some livestock scales are more advanced than others. If you desire to automate your record keeping, look for scales that have software for herd management and allow you to update all your records automatically.
Other models allow for identification of every animal you have on the farm. With such scales, manual identification of animals is not necessary and this option would save you time. These scales are often fitted with an electronic ID interface feature. - Speed of Measurement
Depending on the size of your herd, the speed with which the readings are captured could make a difference in the amount of time you spend just on the weight measurement aspect. A rancher with a large herd of animals can save time by investing in a scale that captures data quickly, as some models capture data faster than others. A difference of even 5 seconds can add up to hours of saved labor. However, a rancher with a small herd may not make substantial labor savings with such scales.
- Advanced Data Features
Advanced data features allow your scale to do more than just animal weighing and identification. Such a scale will, for instance, record other body conditions such as the pregnancy of your animals. This feature comes in handy for farmers who rely mainly on the scale for all management decisions. However, this feature may not be of any significant impact for farmers who record such additional data on their computers.
- Bluetooth Connectivity
Bluetooth allows you to weigh the animals from the comfort of your office or house. All you need is a scale that has a wireless connection to your computer, thus allowing you to take measurements in real-time.
You can choose from a variety scales at Quality Scales Unlimited to enhance the operations of your ranch. Give Quality Scales Unlimited a call to learn about your options and reach an informed purchasing decision.