digital livestock scales

[JD6320]

Anyone have any info on what digital livestock scales are good,looking at loadcells for wieghing individual cattle (5000lb cells). Anyone using Davco weight scales out of Quesel B.C?
Thanks
Tom

[tman]

Have you looked at Elias scales. Crop Insurance uses the bale platform scale, which seemed pretty good when they came out to our place. I just lifted it out of the guy's truck box, set it on the ground and then a bale on top. No concrete needed for a base. I would think the livestock ones would be just as handy.

[wd40]

I have seen alot of Reliable Scales equipment and in fact built (and is for sale) a single animal scale that opperates the back door and the 2 (left and right) sorting doors on air. Their equipment is tried and relaible. I would be real warry of Eliase and have never heard of the outfit in BC. Reliable has been in the livestock business for many years and are out of Calgary.800-419-1189

[cowman]

Back in the late seventies we bought an Elias scale that was suppossed to fit in a cattle squeeze. Now it wasn't digital, had a big dial, but worked on a hydraulic load cell.
It was very inaccurate and had to be adjusted all the time. The platform was too narrow. I think it is sitting out in the junk pile today!

[wd40]

You're a little more honest cowman, there's lots of Elias scales in the junk pile.

[PureCountry]

This is a topic I've wanted to get on for a while, I just always forget to ask myself. I've priced some different systems out, but I've never heard feedback on any of them. Anyone ever try and All-Weigh Scale system?

I too am just thinking of load bars to weigh individual animals. I've got an old chute that I want to put just before our palpation cage and squeeze, so we have the option of weighing animals as they come through to be loaded or processed. Anyone ever try that configuration themselves?

[cowman]

Now I will tell you that when we decided to buy a scale we were still in the days of "purebred mentality"!
In reality, what do you need a scale when you are raising commercial commodity cattle?
I think most of us can guess pretty close what a calf weighs? I mean really?...talk about wasting money?
I mean you take your calves to market. The scale says they weigh 650...are you going to argue your mickey mouse scale at home says they weigh 670? Who cares?
A needless expense...in my opinion.

[JD6320]

Purecountry,

If you look at most of the livestock(electronic) scales setups in Canada they are almost all using the same equipment but with their own name stickered on it. My biggest concern is the durabilty of the loadbars in an outdoor enviroment. All-weight was one of the more expensive quotes that I have recieved so far.

[grassfarmer]

I find the scale a valuable tool - I bought an old, small, non squeeze type crate at Rimbey machinery sale for $500. Someone said it was a 4H scale?Works fine, is easy to move with the loader I can set round bales on top to weigh them (up to 2200lbs.) I can weigh calves, yearlings and bred heifers - if you get into bigger cows and bulls it isn't long enough to get all 4 legs on at once. I plan to get one of the welder neighbours to extend the crate and put a proper front and back gate on it. I've seen similar crates at Rimbey at other sales.
I really like this "all mechanical" scale - no electrics to go wrong when it sits outside all the time.

[Eastcoaster]

I'm not sure on the prices of other brands of electronic scales but Gallagher power fencing is selling them now. Their price for 7700lb. loadbars is$2350.00 and a basic readout is $960.00.There is a heavier set also and fancier readouts for data storage. This price seems a bit high to me but maybe not, I'm not sure. If they are as reliable as their fence materials they should be alright.

[wd40]

All Weigh might weigh on day one but don't expect any service.

[wd40]

back in the day of starting our purebred herd we weighed our bull and heifer calves once a month. It was a good marketting tool as far as EPD's were concerned but of little other value. I have an Elias scale and really didn't have any problems with it but don;t use it anymore. It is built into the alleyway with a bar behind it that can be closed when weighing an animal and a slant gate that goes across in front to keep the animal still.

I don't really care what my replacement heifers weigh through the winter, they are staying here for breeding. Yearling weights on bulls isn't an overly important tool when buying a bull, the same genetics can vary dependent on the feed bucket.
I tend to agree with cowman on the need for a scale in a cow/calf operation unless an individual likes working cattle.

[PureCountry]

I firmly believe in weighing my calves individually to gauge what my cows are doing. Two calves standing side by side can be very similar in structure and have 50 lbs difference when you actually run them through a scale. I weigh our cows too, so we know who's raising more of their own body weight and who isn't.

Some cows wean 50% or more, year in, year out. Some don't come close. I think it's a very valuable tool, and I love being able to use it in selection. It works for us, bottom line.

If new ones are too expensive, we'll look at farm sales for used ones.

[topper]

I think if I where looking at a new scale I would consider getting one that could be used with an rfid reader. After all we have to put the darn tags in the cattle so we might as well make use of them. I was looking at one from www.tru-test.com but have never seen one work. I think Kane Vet Supplies out of Saskatoon sells them.

[smcgrath76]

I have dealt with tru-test scale heads and rfid with progeny test cattle. They are slick. The tru-test scale head was connected to a set of reliable load cells, and an allflex stick reader. Over years we would repeatedly obtain individual weights on over 300 feeder calves in under 2 hours. and the best part was at the end you had a file with the weight, date and animal id. It saved 1/2 day of data entry and crosschecking every time.