Weighing newborn calves is another matter. It usually involves me roping one, picking him up and holding him while standing on the bathroom scale I take to the pasture with me. Finding a level spot clear of mud and manure can be tricky, and I always need a helper because I can't see the scale over the calf I'm holding against my chest (yes, I can see it just fine when I'm not holding a calf). So here is the solution to that, a little sling that hangs on a scale suspended from the chute in this case, or from a little arm that fits in the stake pocket of the pickup.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Watch Your Weight
In a business where much of what we do is weight-based, we've had little data to work with on a daily basis. We've done well against our weight targets with the Alliance calves, but it's probably more because the targets are reasonable and the traditional rules of thumb for feeding and weight gain are accurate than because of any specific knowledge I've had. If I wanted to weigh a cow or batch of calves, I had to trailer them to the feed store and get the load weighed on their scale. This is tedious and error-prone when you want the individual weaning and yearling weights the registered cattle require (less so for the Alliance calves which were all averaged, steers and heifers). This year I've added a scale so we can have some weight data on the ranch. It's not permanently installed but we gave it a test run yesterday to get yearling weights for the heifers. In the first photo I'm stress testing it, and in the second it's in actual use.
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