Weight tape?

[milkmaid]

I believe I saw a weight tape once for dairy stock - you measured around the girth and calculated age and came up with an approximate weight. Anyone know where I can find one of those for beef stock?

I've got a 11 month old angus/holstein cross heifer here that should be about 700-750lbs based on what her contemporaries weighed when they went through the auction last fall and a 2lb/day gain for her since then. I don't have access to a scale that's good enough to give me an accurate weight. Anyone know where I could find a tape that would work for her...or, if I took a tape out and measured her girth, would anyone on here have a weight tape that they'd be willing to read and tell me what it says she is?

 

[tom4018]

Our local mill and TSC has the tapes. I got one if you will measure with a tape.

 

[randiliana]

Try this link.

http://www.enasco.com/farmandranch/Brow ... kIndex=317

 

[cfpinz]

Valley vets sells them. If you wanna do the measuring, I have one here that I'd be glad to cipher for you.

cfpinz

 

[Farmgirl]

We just weighed two cows and a heifer that we had measured with a tape. Tape was very accurate. On one there was a 50 pound discrepancy (1100 pound cow). Other cow the tape and scale were no more than 10 pounds different (1200 pound cow). On the heifer there was a 15 pound discrepancy (1000 pound heifer).

This is beef cows. We got our tape from Jeffers. Someone previously posted a link to a weight chart. I have referred to it before and found it to be very accurate on our less muscular cows.

Farmgirl

 

[Farmgirl]

That is the link I was referring to.

Farmgirl

 

[Susie David]

Looks like you are on your way....we found that the tape is accurate within 25# on big steers and off 50# or more on fat calves....

 

[milkmaid]

Thanks folks, I'll go out and give measuring her a try (LOL) and in the future purchase some tapes of my own. Sounds like a good idea to have on hand - and when I checked those links they're pretty cheap.

 

[milkmaid]

OK, I came up with a 67 inches around the heart girth, plus or minus an inch or two (I was using a 60" sewing tape :lol and a 48" at the withers for height, again plus or minus a few. With a scale of 1 to 10, and 5 being ideal condition, I'd call her a BCS 6, maybe a 7. She's a hair on the chunky side. IMO anyways; it's a case of can't-see-the-ribs but "can"-feel-the-ribs. Shoulders and hip bones completely covered.

Her contemporaries (steers) off the nurse cow weighed an average of 420lbs on 10/18/05 at the auction. If I call her that, and figure +170 days (to today) x a 2lb ADG that'd be 420lbs (then) + 340lbs (gain) = 760lbs. Does that match up with the numbers I got measuring her?

I think I have a picture of her around somewhere if it helps...yep.

Thanks a bunch

 

[cfpinz]

Here's what my tape says:

67"-Properly finished-826lbs
Over finished-782lbs
65"-Properly finished-762lbs
Over finished-722lbs
69"-Properly finished-892lbs
Over finished-845lbs

Fleshy(Properly finished)-...appear square and smooth with no spine or ribs visible...

Very Fleshy(Over finished)-...may have pockets of fat under the tail.

She looks to fit the Properly finished category to me.

Hope this helps

cfpinz

 

[milkmaid]

That does help - thanks a lot, cfpinz!

Those of you with tapes - what type/brand do you have, and do you have a preference on brand? I ought to go ahead and order two (one for beef and one for dairy, LOL) but thought I'd ask some opinions first.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

That does help - thanks a lot, cfpinz!

Those of you with tapes - what type/brand do you have, and do you have a preference on brand? I ought to go ahead and order two (one for beef and one for dairy, LOL) but thought I'd ask some opinions first.

I'm no expert by any means...lol. However, my "guess" would be that livestock weight tapes to measure around the girth are all based on the same statistical information obtained from some research facility. Different companies probably use same info and put their name on the tapes.

When ordering one or more weight tapes, pay attention to the cost of the tape + any minimum shipping & handling charges and/or sales tax additions for those "companies" or "States" that don't seem to recognize the weight tapes are "livestock" items which (at least in Texas) are sales tax exempt.

 

[dun]

WHn we used tapes we found that the plactic paper types held up better then the straight plastic types. The last ones we had said Purina on them, but they were all the same, just different sales pitch on each one.

dun

 

[cfpinz]

Mine came from Valley Vets, feels like tyvek material. Free shippping and handeling over $60.

cfpinz

 

[dun]

Mine came from Valley Vets, feels like tyvek material. Free shippping and handeling over $60.

cfpinz

That's the plastic paper type stuff.

dun