Electronic Cattle Scales

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Any veterinarian with a significant amount of livestock clientele will have a use for electronic cattle scales. The two most common types of digital cattle scales used by veterinarians are load bar scales and platform scales. Load bar scales usually consist of two weigh bars with handles, a cable and connector, and a digital display. This type of scale has the advantage of being very portable. It has the disadvantage of requiring the user to provide a rugged platform to sit on top of the load bars. A platform style electronic cattle scale will have a large, flat, metal surface (usually covered by a rubber mat) that the cattle must step onto to be weighed. The metal platform may be made from painted steel, aluminum, or stainless steel.

Standard Electronic Cattle Scales

* These scales typically will have both pound and kilogram weighing modes, and are rarely found at prices less than $1500.

* A cattle scale should be able to weigh accurately up to at least 1000 pounds, although some can weigh multiple animals and up to 10000 pounds or more. Typically, the weight is measured in half pound increments.

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... * An electronic cattle scale should have a large, easy to read, LCD display.

* A platform scale should be at least four feet wide to accommodate the size of cattle, and ideally it should have a low profile of three inches or less, making it easy for the animals to step up onto the platform.

* The better quality electronic cattle scales are capable of 1/10 percent accuracy and have some sort of motion averaging and hold technology to ensure continued accuracy when the cattle are not standing still.

Desirable Extra Features

* Keyboard functions such as TARE and hold buttons take the complications out of weighing large, unpredictable animals like cattle. With a hold function, the weight of the cattle stays on the screen for a few minutes after the animal exits the scale; this way, you don’t have to take your focus off of the cattle. A TARE function automatically subtracts the weight of non-cattle items or the weight of a handler if the cattle must be held in place, eliminating the chance for possible mathematical errors on your part.

* Platform cattle scales do not have to be overly cumbersome or immobile. A few models are as lightweight as 55 pounds and can be brought to the farm for on site check ups. These “portable” models often come with feet that can be adjusted to eliminate the problem of uneven flooring.

* Some come with a remote indicator, but indicator column stands are often available as well.

* A desirable feature that some electronic scales are equipped with is the ability to be used in extreme cold or heat conditions.

* RS232 connectivity is often desireable in the livestock scale market; scales that have RS232 connectivity are able to automatically transfer all data to a printer, computer, or ear tag reader. A few will even export that information into a spreadsheet and use special software to organize the figures. More recently, USB is also offered for this purpose.

* A number of electronic cattle scales will have an overload capacity of 100% or better. This means extra weight can be put on the scale (which may happen at some point accidentally!) without damaging the unit.