Agricultural scales: The Most Important Farm Equipment You Can Own?
Farm weighing scales are integral tools for many parts of the agricultural industry – from weighing a newly born lamb to checking your crop yield during harvest time. Join us as we look at the importance of weighing scales in farming and uncover the many ways in which these weighing instruments can be used.
Using weighing scales to check crop yields
There are two ways in which farm scales can be used to check yields – the first is by measuring the potential quality of your produce using a moisture analyser. This is done throughout the growing process and gives farmers a good indication of the overall condition of their crops. For grain harvesting for example, too much moisture could result in bacterial growth and an increased risk of disease and pests. Too dry and the grain is subject to greater damage and is at risk of shrinkage – so it’s important to get your moisture content right!
At the end of the growing process comes harvest time, which calls for farmers to gather their crops and measure their amounts for the year. For this, a heavy duty weighing scale with a high capacity is used, such as a platform scale or hanging scale.
Using weighing scales for transporting fresh produce
When you’re ready to transport your produce, weighing scales can be useful to ensure that you meet the correct regulations for weight limits and do not get overcharged for transporting your goods.
It’s also crucial to have a high quality and accurate weighing scale to make sure that the transportation of fresh goods is as seamless as possible. The transportation time of fresh produce is crucial as it could influence the quality and quantity of your overall sale. Hanging scales such as the SHS Crane Scales are a good option the fast, easy weighing of produce bags. For weighing crates and pallets, the PTS Pallet Truck Scale can weigh and transport your items in one, making your shipping process faster and more efficient.
Weighing livestock
Livestock is constantly weighed at all points of a farm animals life for a variety of different reasons. For animals such as lambs or calves, constant weighing is necessary to ensure that the animal is sold or slaughtered at the optimal time. This helps to secure the best possible price for your livestock.
As well as this, livestock can also be weighed throughout their lives to monitor their overall health and wellbeing. Weighing can help farmers to understand and identify any health conditions that may cause an animal to gain or lose weight, such as Johne’s disease or Maedi Visna. It also acts as essential information for vets when supplying medicines and protects from potential over or underdosing.
For livestock weighing platform scales or weigh beams can be used. The Adam PT Platform Scale comes with a diamond-plate steel surface to provide grip for animals, and features an intuitive dynamic weighing to ensure accurate weighing for moving subjects.
Weighing animal feeds
Just as weighing your animals is an important part of their development, so is weighing their feed. This allows for farmers to determine the correct portions and amounts to feed their livestock, thus ensuring that they are developing at the correct pace. Many use a feed conversion ratio method to form a direct link between food consumed and weight gained. From here you are able to accurately set the right amount of food for your animal, and can estimate how much that food is likely to cost over a desired period of time.
Checking soil moisture content
Moisture analysers are used in many ways on a farm, not least when monitoring the moisture content of your soil prior to sowing seeds. Soil must be of a specific moisture level to ensure good quality crops and help to prevent the risk of bacteria growth. Moisture analysers heat up and dry the sample which in turn enables the device to measure the amount of moisture in the soil to determine its quality.
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