By Kevin Hill

Weighing the animals is critical in any farm. Accurate weighing helps in keeping a check on the health of animals at different stages of their growth. Livestock weighing scales come in handy for optimizing the performance of your animals.

Here are 5 reasons why regular livestock weighing is critical on your farm.

Identifies Optimal Breeding Time
One critical decision that has to be made in any livestock farm pertains to breeding. Based on the health of the herd and animals’ weight, you can easily identify the optimal time for the farm animals to breed. You can help in preventing complications in the future and with the weight data collected, you can make better, informed decisions that will guarantee healthier calves in the herd.

Helps in Determining Feed Quantity
You need to constantly weigh your animals to check whether they are healthy or not. The data collected after weighing them will give you a better understanding of when to increase or reduce their feed. The data can also be used to suggest any changes in the diet or recommend more nutrients. Having the right feed conversion rate will help you come up with the right food proportions that will help in achieving particular growth rates within a set period of time.

Easy Monitoring of Animals’ Health
It is critical to maintain healthy animals on the farm, which is also one of the most challenging tasks. However, this can be made a little simple by investing in livestock weighing scales as they can easily monitor the health of the animals. They help in detecting sudden weight loss which can be indicative of a serious disease or health condition. If a health concern is detected, visit a veterinarian and get the right treatment before the disease spreads to other animals.

Helps in Picking the Weaning Time
Weigh the calves in the livestock as well because making the decision on weaning determines how well the calves are integrated into the herd. Moreover, you can predict the future growth of the calves by analyzing the captured data and studying the performance graph. This data helps in determining the performance of your herd.

Evaluates Breeding Performance
By regularly weighing the animals, you can easily determine the right breed for your farm. The breeds which add weight constantly are preferred for breeding as they guarantee healthier calves and a higher return on investment. You can even decide to produce a cross-breed of the healthiest animals based on the weighing data that is collected over time.

Regular livestock weighing also helps in reducing the impact of the livestock price volatility on the business by maximizing output and reducing cost and waste. You can achieve price premiums by meeting your livestock buyer’s specifications.

Kevin Hill heads up the marketing efforts at Quality Scales Unlimited in Byron, CA. Besides his day job, he loves to write about the different types of scales and their importance in various industries. He also writes about how to care for and get optimized performance from different scales in different situations. He enjoys spending time with family and going on camping trips.

For more information, visit www.scalesu.com.