What do you weigh your new born calves on? Economically, I wondered if I weighed myself first on an accurate digital scale and then picked the calf up and weighed again if that would do OK.
Weighing New Born Calves
- Thread starter Chuckie
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sidney411
Well-known member
Chuckie,
I don't see why that wouldn't work, but I assume you aren't doing this in the pasture??? We have a scale that hangs from a rafter under the shed, it has a little sling that fits around the calves belly. It wouldn't work on an older calf that will fight though.
I don't see why that wouldn't work, but I assume you aren't doing this in the pasture??? We have a scale that hangs from a rafter under the shed, it has a little sling that fits around the calves belly. It wouldn't work on an older calf that will fight though.
yes, weighing yourself + the calf and then weighing yourself on a scale will work.
we use the weight tapes. initially we used a scale and the tapes to determine accuracy & found the tape to be pretty accurate. you may also want to use a scale at first to help determine how snug to pull the tape & exactly where to position it.
http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html ... b0d0204ae5
we use the weight tapes. initially we used a scale and the tapes to determine accuracy & found the tape to be pretty accurate. you may also want to use a scale at first to help determine how snug to pull the tape & exactly where to position it.
http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html ... b0d0204ae5
sidney411
Well-known member
I have used the weight tapes that go arount the heart girth, but I've never seen this one before. I don't understand how the measurment around the hoof would correlate to the weight of the calf? Wouldn't it be different for each breed (like the heart girth)? I know that a jerseys' hoof is very tiny opposed to let's say a char calf.
sidney411":1hawbdpu said:
it's the same for all breeds but one side is for bull calves & one side is for heifer calves. as for your jersey/char reference, yes, the jersey hoof is smaller but jersey calves tend to weigh less, too.
we've only used it on our hereford calves & found the accuracy to be within about 2 lbs if used correctly.
Chuckie":3cehrsqa said:
Your digital scale plan would work. We've used them; problems arose when it was too cold for them to work in the pasture. We also used the tape for one season. It's so much easier, but we reported the heaviest weights ever that year. The next year we went back to our old method. We have a sling that goes around the calf's middle and a small scale that hooks into the ends of the sling. I think the scale only goes to 100 lbs, but we generally don't have anything that weighs 100 lbs, so it works for us. It will benefit you greatly to weigh those calves at birth. Whatever method you use, be sure to use the same one on all the calves in a contemporary group. Good luck....
We have also used the hoof tape and found it to be pretty accurate. There always seems to be one that we question. Last year we had a first calf heifer have a bull calf that weighed well over 100 lbs - yes we pulled him! The tape said he was over 125 but he was pretty puffy over this hooves from the pulling, the heart girth measurements said he was about 117. There is a +/- error on the hoof tape different weights for different sexes. I think it is pretty close - and MUCH easier than picking them up, especially when they are big or fiesty! I think either BEEF magazine or Drovers Journal has a new bumper attached scale advertised in it, looked pretty nifty!
OP
OP
Thanks for everyone's input. It is good to read what works for some and what didn't work for others. It gives you an idea of what works. I am going to purchase the tape that tex-ag recommended. Then I will try the digital scales too just to compare at first. I will also look into the hanging scales.
We have the digital electronic scales that attach to the hitch on the back of a truck - BUT - we had a hitch receiver welded onto a platform built across the back of our truck bed at the front of the bed - to put the scales - if you use it like they demonstrate, it puts your back to the cow while you put the calf in the cradle for weighing - not a good place to be - speaking from experience. Had a cow nail my husband - hence the new location - this way we just lift the calf up into the bed of the truck and weigh it - mama can hang her head over the side to sniff her calf, but not get either of us. We do use it occasionally on the back of the truck when the cow is in a pen and we can grab the calf and weigh it outside of the pen away from the cow. But the scales work really well - run on batteries.
klasqh":1repoco8 said:
the only problem with anything attached to the truck is your dependency on the weather & location. in our area it's usually fairly wet & muddy in the winter & we hardly ever drive the truck 'cause it's usually too wet (even w/4wd unless you really want to mess up your pasture). also, the cows tend to calve in the brush & a 4-wheeler can usually get there but a truck couldn't.
Running Arrow Bill
Well-known member
We use the "bathroom" scale system to weigh newborn calves (weigh ourself, pick up calf, weigh both of us). Not too difficult since our calves range between 45 and 75# at birth.
We've been using Weight Tapes for a couple of years and found them to be accurate enough for de-worming activities and getting within 5% or so of actual weight. Heck of a lot easier than hauling animal to public scale. Also, lot cheaper than buying a $1750 to $2500 scale.
If anything, the weight tapes possibly underestimate the weight of a bull or very muscular animal, since muscle weighs more than fat.
With our frequent "weighing" of our animals (every time they are worked), we get a reasonably good estimate of their actual weight. And, since we aren't worried about selling animals by the pound, it works for us. P.S.: we also sell weight tapes, bull nose rings. Email me if interested.
Bill
We've been using Weight Tapes for a couple of years and found them to be accurate enough for de-worming activities and getting within 5% or so of actual weight. Heck of a lot easier than hauling animal to public scale. Also, lot cheaper than buying a $1750 to $2500 scale.
If anything, the weight tapes possibly underestimate the weight of a bull or very muscular animal, since muscle weighs more than fat.
With our frequent "weighing" of our animals (every time they are worked), we get a reasonably good estimate of their actual weight. And, since we aren't worried about selling animals by the pound, it works for us. P.S.: we also sell weight tapes, bull nose rings. Email me if interested.
Bill
Running Arrow Bill":3plrv9ek said:
we've never used the weight tapes on mature animals, but why would frequent "weighing" give you a good estimate? if we need to weigh ours for some reason we only run them across the scale once & assume that's their real weight (considering the scale is balanced & calibrated). sounds like maybe we should run them across more often to get the actual weight? :roll:
greenwillowherefords
Well-known member
Running Arrow Bill":266xn7dh said:
How much do the weight tapes underestimate a bull usually?
Craig-TX
Well-known member
Running Arrow Bill":13em672k said:
Lately is seems like there's a good market for bull halters too.
Craig-TX
We jsut use a large Digital scale in our barn We calibrate it by setting a 50 lb sack of feed on it then we weigh our calves the day they are born. this works really well. We calve all our cows in the barn so we dont have to drive a long way but the portable scale sounds awesome though. Would be nice for the spring calving cows.
greenwillowherefords
Well-known member
That must be a tremendous job getting 2500 cows to calve in the barns!
not all at once we dont have that many in the barns we have them pretty well figured out when they are gonna calve we move them in the barns about 3 days prior to calving and turn them out when the calves hit 48 hours on the ground.
greenwillowherefords
Well-known member
You must have several hundred up at once though. Do you have specially designed calving facilities?
Yeah we have a calving barn that is 400 feet wide by 100 feet long which is heated and has hot water we calve the cows in groups of 5 and we have about 40 pens total in the barn and then we have a covered lean to that has another 20 pens outside where we hold all the cows that are waiting to calve.
