Back to Home

Jump to Scales and RFID Products Menu

Benefits of Weighing

Weighing is fast becoming the most cost effective way of maximising on farm profit. Lambs need to be "picked" at their premium grade and this cannot be consistently achieved without the objective measure of weighing the animals. But weighing can deliver so much more... it can assist in utlising feed to the best advantage and making management decisions on harvesting feed for the best returns, it can assist in identifying animals that have superior growth rates and in a stud situation provides essential data related to genetic gains.

There are several weighing brands readily available. In New Zealand Trutest, Iconix and Gallagher are the best recognised. Each of these companies produce a range of indicators that link with their loadbars and provide varying levels of sophistication. Before deciding on an indicator think about what your priorities in weighing are. Are they basic? Do you want to have access to liveweight gains between weighings? Are you thinking about implementing electronic (RFID) identification? Are you prepared to put aside the time to learn how to operate the more complex systems. Price is generally an indicator of the functions the indicators carry out within a brand. The number of animals to be weighed and recorded will also dictate the size of memory and therefore the level of indicator you may require.

Download to computer is another factor to consider. Some companies provide the software for this interface free. For others it may be an additional cost. Upgrades to the computer programs may also be available on line.

Racewell is a reseller of scales and electronic reading equipment. While the warranty remains with the manufacturer, our agents are generally well versed with how the various models work and can assist in setting up scales to work with the Racewell system.

Racewell systems are non proprietory - they work with complementary weighing and tagging systems. The following are summarised data on the various weighing systems that complement our livestock handling systems. Links to the manufactures are included in the details .

The Racewell auto control box identifies the scale protocols and is able to communicate with Trutest, Iconix or Gallagher weighing systems. Additional scale types can be introduced if necessary by a small programme change and the protocols of the additional scale system

Animal management by Electronic identification for breeding, fast and accurate drafting by weight or other criteria, movement traking and traceability of product is becoming more standard practice. Racewell systems are well placed to help the farmer make the most of these technological changes. Putting electronic eartags in the animals and using an RFID aerial and reader are all that is needed to complement the system.

Most countries have adopted a low frequency electronic (RFID) ear tag standards. There are a number of companies making tags and tag readers. Provided these readers are compatible with the scale interfaces, they can be used successfully with the Racewell system. If not wanting to correlate the readers to the weighing system, any standalone reading system can be successfully used with the Racewell system,