Weighing animals

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I had seen in countryside once a chart for finding out the weight of your animal with a tape measure by ading it or multiplying it or somthing like that. I looked through all our countrysides and I didn't find it so if someone could tell me what it is I would greatly apreciate it. Thanks.

-- Naomi (beebedz@juno.com), September 20, 2000

Answers

Nasco Farm and Ranch catalog carries weight tapes for hogs, ponies, horses, beef cattle, dairy cattle and goats. Price runs $2.75- $4.35 each. Some estimate according to breed, grade. It seems to use a formula comparing heart girth with length. Nasco,901 Janesville Ave. Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 53538-0901 1-800-558-9595

-- Terri Perry (stuperry@stargate.net), September 20, 2000.

Feed stores and farm catalogs such as Jeffers carry tapes for weighing all kinds of critters, such as beef/dairy cattle, sheep, goats, horses, dogs, etc. But here's what you asked for:

Beef cattle, sheep and goats

1. Measure the circumference of the heart girth just behind the front legs.

2. Measure the length of the body, on the side, from the point of the shoulder to the point of the rump (pinbone).

3. Use this formula: hearth girth x hearth girth x body length, divide by 300 = weight in pounds.

If the heart girth measures 76 inches and the body length is 66 inches:

76 x 76 = 5,776 x 66 = 381,216, divide by 300 = 1,270 pounds

With UNshorn sheep, be sure to compress the wool to ensure an accurate measurement.

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Swine

1. Same as above.

2. Measure the length of body from the poll (between the ears), over the backbone, to the base of the tail.

3. Use this formula: heart girth x heart girth x length, divide by 400 = weight in pounds.

If the hog weighs less than 150 pounds, add 7 pounds to the weight figure.

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Horse

1. The same as above.

2. Measure the length of the body from the point of the shoulder to the point of the croup.

3. Use this formula: heart girth x heart girth x length, divide by 300 + 50 = weight.

If the heart girth is 70 inches and the body length is 65 inches:

70 x 70 x 65, divide by 300 + 50 = 1,111 pounds.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), September 20, 2000.


Does anyone here know about the accuracy of the weigh tapes? When I told somebody how much some of my kids weighed on the weigh tape, they said that the weigh tapes really aren't accurate on young stock, and that if you wiegh them on a regular scale there will be quite a bit of variation. I'm not able to do that, but I'd like to know if the weigh tapes really do run a little to the heavy side, as I'd hate to breed a doeling who tape weighed 80 lbs and find out that she is actually only 50-60 lbs!

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 20, 2000.

Rebekah, weigh tapes work great. Back before Boer, show wethers were mostly Nubains. We would weigh tape the boys before shows and they were very rarely off by a couple of pounds to the hog scale at check in. I would guess that you could be several pounds off but nothing like the 10 or 20 pounds you are thinking.

saanendoah.com has the coversion scale to print out to use a dressmakers tape, if you don't want to spend the money on a weigh tape. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 20, 2000.


Thanks, Vicky. I was getting tired of hearing how 'small and thin' my girls are-they meet the breed standards for height and are heavy enough; just have good dairy character, so I'll quit worrying about it. Maybe they look skinnier when they've been clipped, which brings me to another question. How tight should the tape be? I like to pull it fairly snug, just to be sure it's not running a little high.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), September 20, 2000.


Rebekah, what breed, small and thin as milkers? You do know that though breeders tout the 8 months or 80 pounds to all newbies they can, it keeps you our of our show rings!!! And I am not even kidding here! A doe bred at 8 months would have kids at 13 months and if breeders were breeding this age kid, why is the Junior champion at 99% of the diary shows pulled from age group 12 months to 24 months? An 80 pound kid is exactly that a kid. With most does gaining most of their mature highth at 15 to 16 months, breeding them early can stunt this growth. It also makes for a much less mature ie, less heart girth, less barrel, less width, and the killer less stature. The breed standard is a minimum heigth requirment, and you certainly don't want to be breeding only to reach a minimum requirment! I really had never thought of this last sentence like that for quite some time. You certainly wouldn't want a doe who could only make her milk star by the minimum amount, because that aint much! I breed my girls to freshen slightly before their 2nd birthday, they have the size I need to immediatly be shown as a 2 year old first freshener, they also kid very eaisly, milk very well, with larger pregnancies and healthy robust kids. The really true test of enough flesh is that running your hands over their ribs you should feel flesh over their ribs, if you fell just skin, they are to thin, if you feel a roll of fat well then it's less grain :) Don't pull that weigh tape to tightly, just pull it around the doe comfortably, it should not indent the skin. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), September 21, 2000.

They don't look all look small and thin to me. There are a few who do, which were bought from a place where they were bred too small and then underfed besides. Two of those are yearling milkers,(both had twins), and one is a two year old that is VERY thin. Her jaw is just slightly crooked, she was starved as a pregnant yearling. Some have told me that a calcium defieciency can cause crooked bones. All her relatives, including her kids, have had beautiful heads, and the breeder was shocked when I told her about the crooked face, so I don't think she was born with it, or would have been knocked in the head. Anyway, she has a harder time eating than the other does, takes longer, I don't think it's easy for her to get th nourishment she needs. I am trying to dry her off to get some flesh on her if we can, see if she can survive this winter. So she is thin, and will always be on the small side. I have seen her relatives and kids, and they were big and beautiful. The yearlings will grow; I'm feeding them extra grain, and not milking them other than what their kids take from them. One of the does' mother was a breed leader weighing well over 200 lbs! The weigh tape wouldn't fit around her! So I'm considering leaving this doe dry this year to give her a chance to grow. She is out of top bloodlines and would be worth the extra time. But for the most part, my does aren't thin, they just tend to be lean and dairy, and this lady raises boers and meat goats, and Nubians. I have shown against her, and my does beat hers for having better dairy character. I have tried feeding them more grain to get them to put on more flesh, but they just milk it off, the only times I have seen them fat is as dry yearlings, or after a false pregnancy.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 21, 2000.

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