Our ProductFAQs.

Optiweigh is an automated system for weighing livestock while they are out in the paddock or in a feedlot pen.

One of the key features of Optiweigh is its portability and ease of use. Simply tow the unit into the paddock and position it near a water point or some other spot where the animals gather. Set-up simply involves swinging up the drawbar, putting the attractant in the tub and switching it on.

There is no extra infrastructure or animal training required. Optiweigh uses the natural inquisitiveness of the cattle to attract them to the unit and a lick block or loose-lick encourages them to place their front feet on the platform. Their NLIS tag and weight are then sent via satellite to our cloud server where algorithms remove any errors and calculate actual whole body weights and weight gains.

The data is stored securely in a user’s own account and both mob and individual animal information can be accessed any time from a phone, tablet or computer. Users also receive a daily email summarising mob weight information and showing average daily gain rate.

Yes – remarkably so. But this is not new. The accuracy of front feet weighing has been established for a long time and it is used in quite a lot of research situations.
Optiweigh’s own conversion algorithms have been developed after extensive research and trialling on many different animal types and in many different environments.

They have also been independently verified in numerous published articles and scientific papers.

Weighing in the paddock collects multiple records per day over many consecutive days and our process of backchecking shows that when enough animals are weighed it is generally more reliable than yard weighing.

No. For most mobs it is quite rare for all the animals to be weighed because naturally some animals will be more eager to step onto the unit to get to the attractant than others. Also, in larger mobs there are simply not enough hours in the day for all animals to be weighed.

The number of animals weighed each day most commonly ranges between
20 and 50 and depends on the size of the mob, the size of the paddock and how much they like the attractant.

And not the same animals get on every day, so this means that after 3-5 days there will typically have been 50 to 100 animals weighed. Depending on mob size this generally equates to between 1/3 and 2/3 of the animals.

Getting the right attractant is the key to maximising the number of weight recordings. And what works best can vary from farm to farm, region to region and season to season.

We find that a sweet loose lick works best of all (and Optiweigh units come with a couple of bags of our own mix as well as a built in “Limiter” to ensure they can’t eat it all too quickly).

Some of the other things that can work well are:

• Other loose licks and meals;
• Blocks – including both molasses and/or salt based blocks; and
• Liquids such as molasses

In many situations animals will step straight onto a new unit without hesitation – lured by the smell of the attractant.

Once they have started coming to the unit there will usually be enough records to get an idea of mob average weight and spread of weights within 2-5 days, but often it can take as little as 24 hours.

Calculating weight gain takes a little longer. We start reporting the Average Daily Gain (ADG) after 7 days – but short term weight gain calculations can be a little volatile so a period of 14-30 days starts to become more reliable.

A daily report that summarises your Optiweigh records for the current mob will arrive in your email inbox every morning.

For further detail users can use the Optiweigh App or log into the Client Portal on the Optiweigh website.

In the client portal there are four reports covering:

1. A chart of mob weight changes over time;
2. A chart showing the number of animals in 25kg weight ranges;
3. An individual animal report showing current weight and ADG; and
4. An individual animal report showing average weights by day, week or month over selected time periods.

The data from any of these reports can be downloaded for use in other systems if required.

Yes, we use satellite data so an Optiweigh unit will work absolutely anywhere and you won’t have to worry about trying to find a spot that has phone service.

Our early adoption of low earth orbit satellite technology means we are able to provide this at a much lower cost than traditional satellite subscriptions – even lower than most cellular subscriptions.

Optiweigh can be used for any situation where you want to know the weight of a mob without having to yard them for weighing.

Some examples of applications currently in practice are:

a) Better timing of sales to optimise weight and avoid penalties;

b) Better predict turnoff times based on more regular weight gain information;

c) Monitoring growth rates of young stock to ensure targets are going to
be met;

d) Monitoring weight gains to identify any potential animal health issues;

e) Monitoring supplementary feeding regimes to optimise feeding amount relative to desired outcomes;

f) Monitoring growth rates of replacement females according to target breeding weights; and

g) Assessing the relative performance of different pastures, paddocks and feed types on animal weight gains.

Optiweigh units are delivering benefits to all types livestock enterprises and in all types of environments, including:

• Breeding, backgrounding, finishing and stud stock;
• Grass systems, feedlots and dairies; and
• Locations ranging from King Island to Kununurra and everywhere in-between;

All our case studies on the previous pages demonstrate the many benefits different farmers running different systems have gained from the units.
All Optiweigh units are designed and robustly built to withstand all climate challenges from the wet to the dry and from the cold in the south to the heat in the north.