The weight tapes usually have four levels of "condition" that you need to decide the degree of condition of your animal. They range from Thin--Moderate--Fleshy--Very Fleshy. The "Fleshy" category is for "Properly Finished" animal. Different weight tapes might have other category names. There can be about +/- 10% variation in weight between the thinest to the thickest animal. Be sure you know the condition of your animal so you can read the correct line item weight when using weight tapes. Also, same person should do the "weighing" since each may have their on degree of "tautness" in the tape. Finally, these tapes are definitely not as accurate as a good scale. However, when no scale is available or other problem are present, then tapes are an option.