Maximising cattle performance: The power of regular weighing

Weighing your livestock is an important management tool on all beef farms. At a minimum animals should be weighed at housing, turn out and mid-season. Regular weighing’s allows you to monitor animal performance and make timely decisions, helping to plan for the rest of the year. Ensuring a strong transition at winter housing will help maximise animal performance. Read more on the importance of maximising cattle performance and the benefits of regular weighing.

Housing at the correct time

Autumn is traditionally the time when cattle are housed and calves are weaned, although if grass growth stops or starts to decline while cattle are still out, they could be losing weight! When at grass, it’s important to weigh beef finishers at least very 4-8 weeks, to check how they are performing. If grass is short, supplementation can be offered or house animals early. Housing adds an additional cost, but if animals finish quicker – it’s worth it.

Pre-condition ahead of housing

Housing can be a stressful time, especially for young cattle that are ready to be weaned. Pre-conditioning prior to housing helps minimise change, i.e. offer creep feed at least 21 days to 6 weeks before young cattle are about to be weaned to give the rumen time to develop, give a pneumonia vaccine prior to weaning, and consider a wormer that will last the duration of housing to avoid as many treatments.

Identify poor performers

Investing in the animals that will give you a positive return in Spring is crucial at this time of year. Through Herdwatch, once you’ve completed multiple weigh sessions through a compatible weigh head, or uploaded previous weight data, the app will give you an accurate understanding of each animals Average Daily Gain (ADG) and identify your top and bottom performing 25% in the herd.

Removing your bottom performing animals will leave you in a better position by reserving forage and straw stocks for cattle that will best convert it into profit in the Spring.

Optimum growth

Regularly weighing your animals enables you to identify patterns in growth rates. You can track the weight of each animal and identify is they are achieving their target Daily Live Weight Gain (DLWG). The more weight data you have, the easier it is to spot when animals need immediate remedial action to try and get them back on track.

Refine your analysis by filtering data based on specific groups of animals, such as breed or age group, tailoring insights to the farm’s unique needs.

Forecast finishing

Up to date weight data allows a finishing plan to be put in place early. Animals of a similar weight can be grouped by weight and fed together without the inefficiency of feeding all animals in the herd.

How Herdwatch can help maximise cattle performance

Herdwatch simplifies cattle weighing by seamlessly integrating with both weigh heads and EID readers. Here’s how it works:

Weigh Head & EID Reader: Select the ‘orange plus button’ and choose ‘weight recording’. Select ‘multi-task weighing’ and enter the necessary details. Connect both devices with Herdwatch, scan or select each animal on the scales, and save their weight. Continue until all weights are recorded, then hit ‘finish’.
Weigh Head only: Follow the same initial steps as above. Connect the weigh head, search and select the animal, record the weight, and repeat. Herdwatch is compatible with TruTest EziWeigh 6/7i & Trutest S3 as well as Gallagher TW-1 (on Android only) via WiFi.
EID Reader only: Follow the same initial steps as above. Connect the reader, scan animals, manually enter weights, and save. Read more here on what EID readers are compatible with Herdwatch.
Without Bluetooth: In instances where a Bluetooth connection isn’t available or preferred, Herdwatch still enables you to record weights efficiently. Follow the same initial steps as above. Manually enter details and weights for each animal and save when done.