How to Effectively Weigh Your Livestock

Regardless of your farm’s acreage and livestock headcount, accurately measuring and weighing your livestock is essential. Knowing the precise weight of your cattle, pigs or any other livestock allows you to monitor their health, measure feed consumption, evaluate breeding performance and much more.

But weighing your livestock is easier said than done. After all, it’s not like they can step on the bathroom scale! As agricultural scale experts, this post will teach you the ins and outs of how to weigh livestock.

Choose the right scale

Effectively weighing your livestock starts on day one when you’re shopping for a scale. The two main types of livestock scales are portable scales and stationary scales. Portable scales allow the convenience of traveling to the livestock instead of the other way around. However, transporting that large scale around can be a challenge in some circumstances.

You’ll also need to consider if you want a smaller scale to weigh individual animals or a larger scale that measures multiple animals at once. Weighing one animal at a time can be more accurate, but it’s a bit more time consuming.

Place the scale on a stable surface

Just like with any other type of scale, your livestock scale needs to be on a flat and stable surface to get the best results. Weighing livestock on a wobbly or uneven terrain can throw the results off by hundreds of pounds.

One advantage of a permanent scale is that it will always be on level terrain. If you go with a portable scale, there’s always a chance that the scale might be uneven when you set it down at its new location.

Place the scale near an electricity source

Electric scales are the most accurate tools for measuring your livestock, so be sure your scale is near an AC/DC outlet. If you’re out in the field, bring a portable generator that’ll supply you with enough power for the entire process.

Minimize stress

Many animals get stressed out and nervous when they’re waiting to be weighed. Another one of our tips on how to weigh livestock is to work quickly and efficiently to minimize that anxiety. You can also minimize their stress by using a portable scale that travels to them instead of transporting your livestock to the permanent scale.

Check for interference

Manure, rocks, sticks and even load cells or cables are just a few of the items that can fall on a scale and give you an inaccurate weight. Before noting the animal’s weight, be sure there isn’t any debris on the scale that will present a heavier reading than it should.

Buy your livestock scales from Rockwell Scales

Our final tip for weighing livestock is to always buy your livestock scales from us. We only sell the highest quality scales and scale accessories, and all of our products are competitively priced. Give our team a call today to learn about our offerings or to get a free quote for your next scale installation, repair or maintenance.

Categorised in: Livestock Scales

This post was written by Writer