A shortened weighing platform designed specifically for weighing calves. Made of 100% aluminium, this high-strength, corrosion resistant platform offers a reliable, fit-for-purpose calf weighing platform.
Designed to fit 580-600mm long load bars (cabled or wireless) with the platform floor consisting of punched holes, making it easier to clean and offering more traction underfoot. The Calf Weighing Platform is also available with a rubber lined floor for quieter operation and further increased traction underfoot.
Compatible load bar length: 580-600mm
Warranty: 2 years
The recommended solution for weighing cattle. Made of 100% aluminium construction, this platform is high strength and corrosion resistant with the ability to weigh up to 1500kg loads.
Designed to fit 600mm long load bars (cabled or wireless) with the platform floor consisting of punched holes, making it easier to clean and offering more traction underfoot for cattle. With fully enclosed end caps offering increased bracing as well as removing any sharp edges or voids that could cause injury to livestock in motion.
Compatible load bar length: 580-600mm
Warranty: 2 years
An equine specific weighing platform that prioritises horse comfort and safety with a smooth rubber lined floor that ensures quiet operation with increased traction under foot to stop steel horseshoes from slipping.
With a corrosion resistant aluminium base, the Horse Weighing Platform is a high strength, fit for purpose solution with the ability to weigh up to 1500kg loads. Designed to fit 1000mm long load bars (cabled or wireless) the platform has a wide, smooth surface area that doesn’t intimidate or scare a horse during the weighing process.
Compatible load bar length: 1000mm
Warranty: 2 years
To make the best animal management decisions for your farming operation, weighing your livestock has always been a powerful tool that should be utilised to keep track of animal performance.
No matter how you weigh your animals, it’s widely agreed across the board that it’s a crucial measure to get insight into animal performance, growth, and health. It's also a key tool for farmers to track progress.
We've come a long way with techniques to measure livestock. Even with all the technology available, farmers around the globe are still using a variety of methods to weigh and assess their animals.
Some of these methods include estimation by eye, weigh bands, measuring tape, and clock scales. Each come with their own challenges, like recording information on scrap paper, manually entering data, and losing print records.
Just like people, all animals are different, and have different shapes, sizes and builds. Monitoring animal growth by eye, for example, is not a great way to estimate an animal's weight for sale or to separate stock into different groups based on their growth. Everyone's eye is different and it’s difficult to get a consistent measure, which is where weighing comes in. It's consistent and accurate, you can’t argue it.
As time passes producers need to find ways to be more productive and efficient. They need better tools to manage their livestock. With the development of new technology, weigh systems have become an essential tool for animal management. Early weigh systems could only provide you with a weight on an analogue display, which has difficulties with accuracy. This progressed to early digital systems and now we are looking at the systems that collect more and more data and information about an individual animal. All this information helps you make better-informed decisions around feed, treatment and selling.
Our Farm Technologies Product Manager, Brian Rose, says throughout the industry it’s well understood that weight is a good measure of how well an animal is doing. “You can’t manage what you don’t measure. If you’re weighing livestock regularly, and they aren’t hitting the targets, it’s a good flag to investigate and see if the animal is healthy. If you’re doing that by eye, it’s going to be very difficult to be objective and consistent.”
Weigh Scales are considered an essential tool for farmers. Recording and weighing your livestock can help figure out the right time to sell stock, let you know if your stock are healthy, aid purchase and sale decisions, determine the optimum time to wean stock, and help determine when and how to separate livestock, to name a few.
While many farmers may still manually estimate animal growth rates, there’s no denying that moving to a digital system will save you time, be more accurate and enable you to make better more informed decisions.
Combining a weigh scale with an electronic identification (EID) reader offers even more value to famers and allows you to measure animals much easier at an individual level. The EID is a unique identifier which can be read by an EID reader removing the need for the farmer to manually read a tag number/brand. This can be used on the weigh scale to record and track an individual animal’s performance over its lifetime by linking weight and data records to the animals EID number.
Brian says an integrated weighing and EID system is the best option for farmers looking to manage their business. “This advanced system works together to automate animal management and handling tasks, saving you time and money.”
EID is also the most efficient way to identify and trace individual animals. As traceability schemes are implemented worldwide to manage food safety and biosecurity risks, EID systems are becoming increasingly important. It is also a quick and easy way to collect and access animal data anywhere.
Our Touch Screen Weigh Scale Range has touch screen technology, meaning access is easier than ever, and with WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities make it easy to connect with EID readers and sync your data with our Animal Performance web and mobile app. The Animal Performance app enables users to take control of their data, track individual animal performance and make better decisions.
The Two Piece Cattle Weighing Platform is easily broken down into two even pieces, making transportation around different weighing locations more manageable for a singular person. This two-piece platform can also be used as a calf weighing platform, with one half of the platform able to accommodate 2 load bars.
Made of 100% aluminium construction, this is a high strength, corrosion resistant and versatile platform with the ability to weigh up to 1500kg loads. Designed to fit 600mm long load bars (cabled or wireless) with the platform floor consisting of punched holes, making it easier to clean and offering more traction underfoot for cattle.
From collecting EID tag numbers when moving stock off farm to comprehensive data collection and analysis, Gallagher offers a range of system solutions to best suit your needs.
Also check out the Gallagher Weighing and EID Brochure for further information.
Note: The systems in this section are based on New Zealand conditions, please visit the Gallagher USA, Canada, or Australia websites for alternative weighing and EID set ups.
New weighing equipment installed in Wellington Zoo’s giraffe enclosure is making it easier to look after the health and well-being of three precious giraffes - with iceberg lettuce offered as a healthy reward for their participation.
The zoo installed a new “trainer” in the giraffe enclosure late last year, which is a huge metal stall with padded sides that allows zoo staff to inspect the giraffes at ground level and at height. It is safe for zoo staff and the giraffes.
The team has added Gallagher loadbars under the trainer, which enables them to weigh the zoo’s eldest giraffe Zahara, her niece Zuri and their companion Sunny.
Team leader of herbivores and birds Glyn Avery says Zahara has been the most receptive to the new equipment so far, but Zuri and Sunny are still a little cautious.
“Zahara is very confident. She is using the trainer quite happily and wandering into it with the promise of plenty of healthy treats. She’s very partial to an iceberg lettuce and we sometimes chop up carrots and give them to her as well.”
The team also uses herbivore pellets as extra motivation, which contain supplements and special oils to keep the giraffes’ coats shiny and hooves in good health.
At 17, checking Zahara’s weight regularly is key to ensuring she remains in peak health. She weighs around 896kgs, but Glyn says giraffe weights can fluctuate throughout the season.
Keeping a close eye on Zahara’s weight means if there are any changes outside the normal range, they can call in expert vets to check her over. The zoo also has The Nest Te Kōhanga on site, an animal hospital and centre for native wildlife.
“Making sure we have this equipment and all the data is crucial to how we look after our animals here at the zoo. It means we can get the basic information we need without having to take animals down to The Nest, unless we really need to,” says Glyn.
While Zahara is comfortable with the trainer, Glyn says Zuri and Sunny are yet to step on the scales, but they are becoming more familiar with the equipment.
“Zuri and Sunny have definitely been a bit more cautious. But we can see they are curious, so it’s a case of desensitising them to the trainer. As they get used to it being in their space, they will no doubt develop the confidence to walk through it too.”
Zoos around the world use a software system called “ZIMS”, which collects data on all animals and allows comparisons to be made no matter where the animals located. This means the Wellington Zoo team can see how other giraffes are performing and how Zahara, Zuri and Sunny’s health is tracking.
Because the giraffes at Wellington Zoo have constant access to their enclosure, the team can get regular updates on their weight.
“It’s a fundamental tool for proactively managing their health and they are willing participants. We’re not having to sedate animals to assess them,” says Glyn. “They are doing it all on their own, albeit with a few treats for encouragement!”
Find out more about our weighing solutions here.
Cables crushed in gates, chewed by rodents or damaged by stock are a thing of the past with Gallagher’s new Wireless Load Bars. This innovative new tool is providing farmers with a completely wireless solution for weighing animals. The Wireless Load Bars are the first of their kind in the market, eliminating the most common failure point of livestock weighing systems - their cables.
Gallagher Weighing and EID Product Manager Brian Rose says the Wireless Load Bars remove the need for cables and can also turn farmers’ phones into a digital livestock weighing system.
“At Gallagher, we have always prided ourselves on developing products that are driven by farmer demand. And the Wireless Load Bars are no exception. Farmers told us they wanted load bars without the annoying cables, which often failed due damage caused by things outside their control. Many also said that the cables were a potential trip hazard. Farmers also told us they struggled with moving weighing platforms from farm to farm to weigh stock on different properties because the cables were an absolute nuisance,” says Brian.
So, the Gallagher team got to work. They spent hundreds of hours perfecting the product’s design and functionality to give farmers a tool that could add real value to their business and make their lives a whole lot easier. “Farmers are pretty savvy now with Bluetooth and Wireless EID readers. They asked us to get rid of the cables on our load bars, so we did!” says Brian. “Our biggest challenge was developing a product with battery power that could last the distance out in the field. We addressed that by incorporating a new low-power battery design, for careful power management. The result is a long-life battery that will last up to ten years before it needs replacing.”
The Wireless Load Bars’ clever design also means that when the battery needs to be replaced, the farmer is notified via their weigh scale or phone app, and it can simply be unclipped and a new one plugged in. The Wireless Load Bars form part of Gallagher’s broader weighing and EID range. When coupled with Gallagher’s Animal Performance mobile app, it gives farmers a digital herd weighing system in the palm of their hand.
“The Wireless Load Bars are a simple tool for farmers wanting hassle-free weighing and data transferred straight to their phones,” says Brian. “They work well as an entry level tool for farmers on smaller blocks, but they can also be coupled with our Touch Screen Weigh Scales for a more complete professional weighing solution.”
Market research has told Gallagher that in larger operations with big herds, farmers don’t always want to have their phones sitting out in the yards. In that situation, farmers can use Gallagher’s TW or TWR Weigh Scale range together with the Wireless Load Bars. They then transfer the data to Gallagher's Animal Performance web and mobile app at the end of a weighing session.
“Gallagher is an early developer of this technology, and we are excited about the benefits it will deliver to farmers,” says Brian. “We know wireless and digital are the future of farming as our primary industries rely more and more on data to make timely and more informed decisions. At Gallagher, we call it ‘precision farming’ and we are committed to being a leader in that space.”