The Gallagher Auto Weigher has proven to be a ‘game changer’ for Australian cattle farmers. Once animals reach 250kg and have been on and off the scale for 14 days, farmers have been able to consistently track weight gains.

One cattle farmer that has been making the most out of the Auto Weigher is Rob McLellan from Yass, NSW. He took the time to talk to us about how an Auto Weigher has taken the guesswork out of raising animals for him.

What is the Gallagher Auto Weigher in your words?

The new Auto Weigher is a fantastic tool for cattle farmers to monitor cattle weights daily, leaving them where they’re grazing. The Auto Weigher estimates their daily weight gain and/or weight loss to determine if they’re hitting their target weights. Like with all movements of livestock, bringing them in to weigh puts stress on the animals. This technology solution enables us to come to them, easily.

How portable and practical is it for you?

The Auto Weigher is a well-built machine. With the ‘pull of a pin’, you can engage the wheels to have it towing and on the move to the next paddock within minutes. 

Has it proven to be accurate against final sale weight?

We had a herd of Wagyu’s using the Auto Weigher. At the time of sale, they averaged 372kg. With the cattle then curfewed and some lighter ones taken out, they came in at an average of 362kg. This is a fantastic tool to monitor cattle and hit the contract weights. In this case, with an accuracy of within 2.7%. 

The attractants are key for the system to perform well. From Salt licks to molasses, the more movement on and off the machine, the better the data. With a herd of 160, 138 were recorded over a 7 days period at an 86% visitation rate, more than adequate numbers stepping up to be counted.

What’s next for the Gallagher Auto Weigher?

We’d like to see some more information around the number of times each animal is weighed and the total weight gain since the first weighing. The better we understand the cattle that aren’t performing, the better chance we have of improving their performance in time for market.

Australian Regional Marketing Lead, Sam Osborn said,“We’re on to it Rob! The functionality you’re talking about is on the way in the dashboard under development. Watch this space for updates!”

It was great hearing from Rob. Feedback from farmers like him is essential to making these products even better so we can continue serving farmers.

He buys in Merino lambs at four to five months old — paying around $30 a head — then turns them off around eight months, receiving upwards of $120/head.

“Even with the most expensive lambs I bought last year — at $60 a head — we still made good money on them.”

Merv starts the sheep off on a high hay ration, gradually reducing that to 10% to finish.

“We’re pulling bread from major bakeries in Perth — the tonnage each week depends upon the season — and I also give the lambs some mineral supplements. There’s a chap who was lot feeding cattle with bread, but I’m the only one I know of doing lambs. Different ones said to me ‘you can’t feed bread to lambs, you lose too many’, and all sorts of things. Some said ‘no good buying bloody Merino lambs to lot feed, you can’t make any money out of them — Merinos only dress out around 44%’.

"Well mine have been dressing out at 52%-plus. So basically, I’ve proved them all drastically wrong!”

Weight accuracy vital

Merv says a key tool in his unusual enterprise is his Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter. 

“The abattoir has a grid bracket of between 18 and 26 kilos, dressed weight, that they want. I only send lambs I know will fit into that."

"And I know that because of the Gallagher Auto Drafter. If you’re going to do the job, do it properly. You’ve got to know what your weight gains are, what weights you’re sending away — that sort of stuff."

“If you don’t know that, you’re in the dark and you lose money. If you send a lamb that doesn’t dress over 18kg, you’re down from $5.40/kg to $3. It’s a fairly fine line you can come back to. If you start losing $2 or $2.40/kg, it takes the price of the lamb down a long way — you’d be back to a $60/$70 lamb instead of $130."

“You’ve got to get them in that grid, in that weight range, and the Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter allows us to do that.”

Quiet, sheep-friendly drawcards

Merv began his operation last year, leasing the old Ross Guy Feedlot at Mundijong in Western Australia. 

“I looked at drafters at the Dowerin Field Day before I started. I wasn’t interested in handling it any other way; that's mainly because I work on my own, and you can’t draft on your own. Well, I’ve got two Maltese Shih-Tzu dogs, but they’ve got a lot to learn!" 

“I asked Darren Manning at Landmark at Midvale to get some prices. I went for the Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter because it’s a faster drafting than some of the others, and it just seemed to be more sheep friendly."

“It’s very quiet. The lambs stand at it. When there’s one in the gate, there’s another one standing at the gate, nudging, waiting for it to open to get in. It’s sort of amazing, really. Occasionally you might have to push one in, but not very often.”

Sole drafting easy 

For Merv, the Sheep Auto Drafter’s speed and user-friendliness have made it a great investment — with a very fast return on that investment.

“Last week I did 270 lambs in just under 30 minutes myself. Well, and the two little dogs, of course! I can do those sort of numbers and time just on my own."

“So with just two loads of prime lambs off to the abattoir, the Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter’s paid for itself. If you didn’t use it, you could hit too many penalties, you just lose so much money. I run them through the drafter and say ‘these lambs will make us X amount of dollars’."

“Darren from Landmark came down to the abattoirs to see the last lot go through. There were 330 head and he asked me how I reckoned they’d go. I estimated between $120 and $125 a head, average. They came out at $123.60. I was bang in the middle! That’s the beauty of the Gallagher Sheep Auto Drafter.”

Built for speed and safety 

The Sheep Auto Drafter is a fully automated weighing and drafting system that is smoother, quieter, and easier to set up and operate than any other sheep drafting product on the market.  

Automatically weigh, catch and draft sheep - unique rollover function reduces operator strain when dagging and handling animals

Crutch and dag only handler with unique top clamping and rollover system.

Transportation kit for sheep handler auto weigh crutch and dag

A high performing stainless steel weighing solution that offers a corner to corner accurate reading for superior weighing, suitable for the heaviest of livestock in large cattle crushes 

Four weigh feet come completed with junction box for converting the four weighing cables into your weigh scale as well as a spare load cell. The stainless steel load cell is designed for quick and easy load cell replacement, allowing you to replace and continue your weighing session in the event of a load cell failure.