But as time has gone on our customers have taught us that the real power lies in using the data to understand “Why” they weigh what they do – and, even more importantly, how their rate of gain can be influenced.

And there was no better example of this than in an article published by The Land this week about how Dennis Rush uses his two sheep Optiweigh units and two cattle Optiweigh units to great advantage (thank you Dennis). The article is well worth reading. Check it out here

The essence of it is that Dennis is using his units to conduct all sorts of trials to understand the drivers of weight gain and how he can get animals to perform to achieve maximum weight gain. He is comparing rations, comparing grazing rotation strategies and understanding when and how to get the best value out of supplements.

We know that a lot of people are using Optiweigh units to run their own on-farm trials so we thought it was about time we put forward a few ideas for trial designs. Some of the things we think are worth considering include:

Supplement effectiveness:

• Start by Weighing all the animals in the mob;
• Only make the supplement available in the tub of the Optiweigh;
• Use the “Session Data” report to know which animals visited and how often;
• Weigh all the animals again at the end and compare the weight gain for those that visited the Optiweigh often to those that did not visit at all.

Paddock / Pasture / Ration comparisons:

• Split a mob evenly – one paddock/pasture type for each;
• Best done with two Optiweigh units to avoid any other influences such as timing;
• Run it long enough to identify whether or not there is a significant difference (we can help with this bit)

Treatment comparisons (for doses and injectables):

• Treat 50% of the mob, record the EIDs of those treated;
• Weigh the whole mob at the start and upload the weights into the Optiweigh portal along with a field saying ‘Treated’ or ‘Not Treated’ ;
• Use the ‘Data Over Time’ report to compare the difference in weight gains between the two groups over time.

It is worth noting that our support team (including our analyst Safina) can help with both the design of trials and with extracting data at the end. Beyond the normal reports Safina can help with data downloads and these can also include details of how long each individual animal spent on the unit while they were there.

When it comes to consumption of supplements we also now have a version of our attractant tub that has scales under it – so we can measure and report the actual amount of a supplement taken by each animal on each and every visit.

It’s all about increasing productivity and profitability and at Optiweigh we love knowing we can help find opportunities to deliver just that. So, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let us help with your individual situation.