Guessing Weight

[the_cowgirl_in_me]

is there an easy way to estimate the weight of an animal. i do not have access to a scale and was wondering his weight. ive been told about ways using the heart girth, but is there a formula that you plug that into?

 

[knabe]

use the same device some use for BW.  just kidding. 

the horse girth bands work to within 35-50 pounds which i test on 10 neighborhood horses of different degrees of fat cover and compared to scale.

 

[steermaker]

Go to your local Tractor Supply or similar store and buy a beef cattle weight estimation tape.  They work OK and should be accurate within 50 lbs.  If you don't have a store near you, you can order one from Nasco or maybe even Sullivan's (can't say for sure).

 

[Turkey Creek Ranch]

Steermaker, these may have worked for you, but we tried one of them one year on calves. They had new born calves weighing upwards of 200 pounds. They were NEVER accurate at all for us.

 

[steermaker]

TCR,

If you use one of those tapes on calves under 500# I agree.  I have found that using the hoof circumference tapes on newborn calves isn't as accurate as I would like either.  We use the tape as more of a guage of how our steers are gaining weight.  In fact, our county fair calves are weighed in and tagged in December.  The day of the weigh in, we tape the calves and then compare that reading to scale.  That gives us an idea how the calves "measure up" using the tape to estimate weight.  If I had my druthers we would own a scale but that is one expense I can't justify at this point.