tralia, Brazil, Mexico ... and Mineral Wells, Texas. “Tru-Test here in the
States, on the livestock scale side of the business, started in 1982,” explains Brandon Sch- weiss, Tru-Test scales product and marketing manager. Tru- Test boasts a 70 percent mar- ket share of livestock weigh scale indicators and is also the world leader in milk me- tering equipment and in elec- tric and conventional fencing. The company’s livestock
The scale becomes your data collection device.
scales division also incor- porates its electronic identifi cation (EID) products. “Things have evolved quite a bit,” asserts Schweiss. “The technologies have changed. The information that producers are collecting, that whole aspect as far as managing herds and collecting animal data to make decisions, have all changed. Over time, that’s evolved into electronic identifi cation and other data collection devices such as tablets.” It’s evolved to the point where on some models, you
can not only record the weight of the animal but also a plethora of information — vaccinations, date of birth, sire ID, dam ID. The scale, Schweiss says, becomes your data collection device. “You don’t have to have any handwritten notes,
because the scale will do it for you,” he says. “It also eliminates the need to have to take a computer out in the fi eld. When you’re done, you can take (the weigh scale indicator) inside and download it into Excel or a third-party management program, which are com- monly used today.” This is of even greater value to producers in today’s
era of escalating costs. “With feed, vaccines and different input products,
all those things cost so much money it’s become really important to manage those inputs, to make sure what you’re doing is working and giving you the results that you’re trying to reach,” Schweiss says. “Scales allow you to track and measure the results,
make sure you’re on schedule to hit target weights at the right times.” The scales can also be used to cal- culate an accurate dose for animal health treatments.
102 The Cattleman June 2014
“Rather than just guess-
ing the animal’s weight and administering so many cc’s or milliliters, you can get a true weight and apply the proper amount of treat- ment for dosage so you’re not wasting any costs,” he says. “The scales are a man- agement tool, whether it’s measuring your feed intake or just keeping track of your average daily gain; they’re designed to help the produc- er manage your animals and make better decisions.”
Tru-Test offers a completely integrated system, from
load bars to its XRP electronic ID panel reader and XRS stick reader, and a weigh scale indicator that allows the operator to read the data while outside the chute. The company does not offer ear tags with EID chips, but Schweiss says their readers are compatible with all major brands. There are 2 types of software that are matched to
the indicator, Link3000 or EziLink, that will sort and display the downloaded data, enabling the producer to calculate such valuable statistics as calf crop percentage. Schweiss says at the end of the day, producers want
products that can integrate with other components, so Tru-Test products are developed with ease of collection and sharing information in mind. “If they’re using one of our electronic ID readers,
we want to make sure that whole process integrates. If they’re using a competitor product as far as an EID reader, we want to make sure that that works,” he says. Unlike the familiar mechanical scales that have to
have the balance on the beam adjusted, all Tru-Test scales are digital. They’re factory calibrated, so when they’re turned on and the digital readout is connected to the load cells that go beneath the chute or platform, they don’t have to be programmed. When the animal steps onto the scale, it will lock onto a stable weight with +/- 1 percent accuracy in 2 to 4 seconds, regard- less of the animal’s movement. Schweiss says they have a basic unit if all a pro-
ducer wants is a weight display, and other models are available if the producer is seeking to collect and store
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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