Interpreting Data

Use this article as a guide to learning how to read, use and interpret the data from an Optiweigh. The pictures used in this article are from the Optiweigh Web Portal.

Optiweigh Platforms 

Optiweigh data can be accessed through three platforms. The Optiweigh Web Portal, the Optiweigh App, and a Daily Email.

Although possible, it is not recommended to view individual data on small mobile screens!

Home Page

The home page is the first page you see after logging into the Optiweigh Web Portal or App.

Session Status

This section will display session information such as 'Total Records', number of 'Animals Weighed', and unit status. 

'Total Records' isn’t the number of animals, it is the number of recorded weights. This number is generally higher because an animal can visit the Optiweigh as many times as it likes.

The analysis mode can be swapped between "Tagged individuals" and "Untagged mob" , this will change the data displayed between EID-based data and mob-based data. It is highly recommended to use EID-based data if possible.

If the Optiweigh has more than 50% bad EID scans, it will assume it is weighing an "Untagged mob" and display that information by default

If you click the "See More  ▼" it will display a bit more detailed status data.

Weight Range (kg)

The portal defaults to showing data for the past 5 days. This can be changed to view, Today, 10 days, or All. Read the next section to determine the best time frame to use.

The mob average, minimum, maximum in paddock weight of these animals and also the weight range 80% of the animals are in, giving a more realistic representation. For sessions with adjusted weights when, these will also show underneath (e.g. yard weight with curfew of 3%).

The number of animals weighed and percentage of the mob scanned are also in this section.

Selecting Time Frames

In general, the default setting of 'Past 5 days' will be perfect. This will give the unit enough time to get a big enough sample size of the mob for the data to be accurate, and also recent.
The critical part to understand here is that it all comes down to how many records you’re getting and more specifically how many different animals are contributing to the mob average. It is best to select the shortest time frame in which a unit will collect a big enough sample size. That might mean going longer to get more data, or shorter to get closer to real-time!

Sample Size

Use these charts to determine the minimum sample size needed for a mob / time frame.

Sheep

Cattle

Please note these numbers have been calculated by us using existing Optiweigh data

If the number of animals weighed in the past 5 days is similar to what is shown in the table above, use this time frame. It is the best option for seeing near real time data, with high accuracy.

If there aren’t enough animals going over a unit in a 5 day period, change the time frame to 'Past 10 days'. This allows more time to collect enough weight records to improve accuracy. 

Session average will give the overall statistics for each session.

Change your time frame to get your % of mob weighed at or above our recommended numbers.

Individual ADG Calculations

Understanding ADG Calculations 

The portal displays the ADG calculations and has options to display 14-day, 30-day, 90-day, and 180-day ADG.

There are three key points to remember in terms of calculations with these ADGs

1. These figures only relate to animals weighed within the last 14 days.
   
2. The ADG calculations are based on a 'line of best fit' approach (straight line linear regression). 
   
3. The ADGs are calculated for individual animals and then averaged across the mob. 
   

Qualifying for an ADG

Each animal can qualify for multiple ADGs, to qualify they must fulfill one of the below requirements for the respective ADG

1. Last 14 days - at least 2 records, more than 7 days apart.
   
2. Last 30 days - at least 2 records, more than 14 days apart.
   
3. Last 90 days - at least 2 records, more than 30 days apart.
   
4. Last 180 days - at least 2 records, more than 90 days apart.
   
5. Over 180 days - at least 2 records, more than 180 days apart.
   

These figures only relate to animals scanned in the last 14 days. 

Understanding ADGs - Example

Using the image above for the last 14 days:  Out of this mob there are 63 animals contributing to the 14-day ADG and on average they are doing 0.6 kg/day. The average spread for these 63 animals is 1 days (time between first and last weight). 

The 14-day ADG can be quite volatile due to its ability to show changes in gut fill e.g. the difference between an ADG of 0.5 and 1.5kg/day is 14kg. This isn’t much considering an animal can eat/drink up to 80kg/day. This ADG is a good leading indicator of what is going on.

The 30-day ADG is generally a truer reflection of the actual rate of weight gain. A good way to sense check your ADGs is to have a look at the weight chart. Here you can look to see if the mob average weight is going up or down by a similar amount (does your ADG and mob weight chart correlate?).

Dig deeper again by looking into the data over time and session data reports. This report is only available on the web portal and provides individual animal weight data. This can be summarised by day, week, month or a custom time frame. Use this report to check that the individual animal changes in weight and ADGs correlate to the ADG figures. 

Sense check your ADGs by looking through the individual data reports.

Weight Chart

The weight chart will automatically default to display only this session data for the last 30 days. This can be changed to display the last 90, 180 days, or all data. There is another option to untick 'Only show session data' - this can be useful for Optiweigh units being rotated between multiple mobs, or when mobs are boxed and a new session is started, etc. This will display a continuous weight chart across multiple sessions (if the animals have been in previous sessions), meaning it is possible to compare what the current mob is doing now to what they were doing in previous sessions.

Understanding the components of the Weight Chart

The green line is the 5-day rolling mob average (the average weight for the 'Past 5 days' under session information). This is the average of all recorded weights over the past 5 days.

The blue dots are the raw weight averages for each day. These will often fluctuate more than the green line because they generally don’t have a big enough sample size of animals to hold consistently.

If you upload yard weight files an orange dot of the average will appear on this chart.

Display the Mob ADG for the past 5 days (by clicking on the words in the legend). This ADG is calculated by the green line today – green line 5 days ago/5 days.  If you see a gap in this red shading it is because there is not data 5 days ago to calculate this ADG. 

Clicking the words in the legend will cause the components of the chart to appear/disappear.

Understanding the Column Chart

The blue column is the weight count, indicating the number of weights recorded on each day.

The orange column is the animal count, indicating the number of individual animals weighed on each day.

The green column is the number of individual animals contributing to the 5-day rolling mob average. Keeping this number as high as possible is integral to getting a big enough sample size to give a good estimate of the mob average. 

Clicking the words in the legend will cause the components of the charts to appear/disappear.

Weight Distribution Chart

This chart automatically defaults to show you the estimated number in mob for the past 10 days. The time period can be changed to display the past 5 days or all data. The 'Count to display' can be changed to show actual number or % of mob.

Each column is the number of animals estimated to be in each weight bracket. When hovering the cursor over a column a number will appear – this will display the number of animals in that weight range and how many animals are at or above the weight.

The left y-axis is the number of animals for the blue columns; the right y-axis is the number of animals at or above a weight range and this is the dark blue dot on the chart. 

Session Data

This report displays individual animal information, including average weight, count of weights, ADGs, etc. It will automatically default to an ADG period of the last 30 days and the session average weight. Both drop downs can be changed - ADG Period to 14, 30, 90, 180 and more than 180-day ADG, and average weight to today, last 5 days, last 10 days and session average. 

Using the table above as an example, the report can be read/understood as follows:

The session average weight for the first animal is 275kg with 17 weights records contributing to this average. Over the last 30 days this animal has been gaining 0.7kg/day with a gain duration of 27 days (between first and last weight) with the last weight recorded on the 10/09/2025.

On all the columns there is a down arrow. Use this to filter the data e.g. largest to smallest for the specific column

Data Over Time

This report displays individual animal average weights. It will automatically default to show you just todays data. The date range can be adjusted to view data by last 1, 7, 14, 30, 90, 180 days or a custom time frame. The average time period can also be changed to view the data by day, week or month.

The data in data over time will display data from previous sessions for an individual

Yard weights (if uploaded) will appear as an orange column.

If an Optiweigh is rotated between mobs, a longer date range will show what the individual animals weighed in previous sessions too.

This report is very useful to validate any confusing data. 

On all the columns there is a down arrow. Use this to filter the data e.g. largest to smallest for the specific column

For more assistance understanding how to read/interpret the data please call the Optiweigh support team on 1300 678 493

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