Finding out the weight of animals automatically is very interesting, not only to find out their growth and to plan slaughter. The animals' weight change provides answers to many more questions like:
- How the pasture is growing
- Is there a suspicion of disease
- Is there a suspicion of parasite infection
- Are my animals behaving normally or are there any deviations?
Weighing at frequent intervals provides a much better business with higher accuracy and better animal welfare. However, constantly weighing animals is labour-intensive and practically impossible to implement. Automatic weighing systems that the animals visit themselves are therefore very interesting. A basic prerequisite is electronic ear tags. These systems can generally be used both on pasture and in stables. Walk over weighing (WoW) systems can provide a weight even without the animal stopping in the scale but just passing through it. With other systems, it is enough for the animals to walk up with their front legs and the AI can still calculate the growth and estimate the weight. A challenge with automatic weighing is to get a good animal flow to/through the scale.