Top 5 Types of Scales for Livestock Weighing
You need a weighing scale for your livestock farm, but one size doesn’t fit all! Let’s get into the top five types of scales that would help keep your livestock farm running smoothly.
1. Platform Scales
With their large sizes, flat shape and high capacities, platform scales like Adam’s PT series are an excellent choice for any large-scale livestock operation. The PT’s durability, chequered plate surface and low-to-the-ground design make it easy for livestock of all shapes and sizes to load on and off without slipping, sliding or any distress at all.
Plus, with capacities up to 3000kg and platforms as large as 1500mm^2, a PT can weigh more than just your animals. Pile on your hay bales, hay rounds, large feed bags and equipment as well. So much can be done on just one scale!
Adam Equipment platform scales differ from floor scales in that you can mix and match their weighing indicators. Choose between six different indicators for the one that offers functions and features most suitable for you. Then, mount it where it’s most convenient!
2. Washdown Scales
Adam washdown scales, like the Aqua ABW, not only boast protection against dust, dirt, mud and other particles, but the water used to clean it.
A scale that can be cleaned easily is essential on a livestock farm, where frequent use and natural conditions can lead to build up over time. This buildup can eventually start impacting your weighing results or even get too slippery for the animals to stand comfortably.
Likewise, if you perform your own butchery, you’ll want to use a washdown scale when cutting up the meat. This helps prevent the spread of bacteria or contamination between weighing sessions. Simply wash your scale down and you can get right back to weighing.
3. Checkweighing Scales
Animals can fall below or rise above a healthy weight due to injury, disease, parasites, old age, pregnancy or even just an imbalance between food intake and energy expenditure. Checkweighing scales like Adam’s GFK-Plus allow you to set high and low weight limits and will alert you when an animal falls above or below them. This is an amazingly helpful way to ensure they’re within a healthy weight range, instead of having to rely on visual cues.
After you’ve done research on the healthy weight ranges of both males and females of a certain type of livestock, you can use those high and low numbers as your checkweighing limits. Weigh your livestock one-by-one and your scale will notify you immediately if any are outside the desired range. That way, you can promptly give them the attention they need.
4. Compact & Bench Scales
Compact and bench scales like the Latitude LBX or CPWplus S are just large enough to weigh smaller livestock like ducks, chickens and rabbits, as well as to measure out their food. They’re often battery operated and some can even be recharged, which makes them uniquely portable from one end of the farm to the other. This saves you the time and effort of bringing animals and food to the scale every time – instead, the scale can go to the animals and then to the food! One trip instead of ten? Yes, please!
5. Dynamic/Animal Weighing Scales
Dynamic/animal weighing is a function on some scales and balances that lets your balance take the average weight of an animal after a specified number of seconds. This is exceptionally useful if you weigh animals that have a hard time standing still enough for the scale to settle and provide accurate readings. Because the dynamic weighing function takes the average weight over time, your scale catches those small moments when they’re still and stores it in its memory to be considered in the total.
The dynamic weighing function is available on a variety of scales of different shapes and sizes. The GBK-Plus and GFK-Plus and Gladiator are examples of bench and floor scales, while the GK-Plus and AE 403 indicators can be paired with any Adam platform scale as well.
Need help deciding which livestock scale is right for you? Contact the Scaletec team; we’ll be happy to help.