Auto weigher and drafter.

[hilux]

Went to the NSA Welsh Sheep event to look at them. The only one I saw was the pratley with two way drafting , talked to a rep about the Gallagher . Thought they were very handy pieces of kit then I had the prices £9-12000. Has anyone got one and how durable are they?

 

[neilo]

A manual drafter/EID weigher is half that (or less), not to me notion far less complex. You'd have to have a hell of a lot of sheep, being weighed & drafted very regularly, to justify the cost of full auto I'd have thought.

You still need to handle fat lambs and put tags in, unless you are tagging everything beforehand.

 

[hilux]

I thought before going about £4000ish. Was I in for a shock. I was thinking about that 40% grant money would have helped! but at those prices they can go and whistle dixey. How are you finding the weigher on your combi clamp?

 

[cotswoldcs]

We have a Prattley 3 way manual drafting crate. Can't rate it highly enough. Simple and quick. I can actually weigh and draft up to 600 lambs an hour provided someone is pushing sheep up for me. That's the only caveat. If you can spare someone to do that job then manual is the way to go. If not then splash out on the automatic. Personally I can't see the sense in automatic. With the manual crate you stand right next to the sheep and can decide which gate to open. For example in the autumn I might weigh fat lambs but choose not to draft out ewe lambs. With the automatic you'd end up everything over a certain weight going in the fat pen. There are so many times I "over-ride" what the computer is telling me, as useful as it is.

We also have a Combi Clamp but don't fancy weighing lambs with it. I guess if you didn't have anything I'd say get the Combi Clamp & weigher but we started with the Prattley manual and it's so much better for weighing lambs I don't want to change.

I'm sure you'll get lots of other opinions from others.

 

[neilo]

I thought before going about £4000ish. Was I in for a shock. I was thinking about that 40% grant money would have helped! but at those prices they can go and whistle dixey. How are you finding the weigher on your combi clamp?

It seems to work very well. I can read an EID tag with my Psion, then it 'collects' a weight via Bluetooth and saves it.
I can see it would be handy to read a tag with a mounted antenna sometimes, but then would it read a tag when you've another sheep that's tried to push up tight behind, putting their front feet on the clamp and fudging the weight? Could just be over complicating the job in an attempt to make it 'easier'?

A CombiClamp isn't very mobile, but then once you get to autowotsits on normal weigher, they are getting less mobile too perhaps. I certainly wouldn't like to give a £9k weigher any sudden jolts whilst bouncing it off a trailer.

 

[unlacedgecko]

 

[hilux]

Do you find with the combi clamp you're constantly holding back the lamb in the race not to distort the reading?

 

[CopperBeech]

I dread to think how many times I put a lamb through a weigh crate each year. . . . many many many 1000's of times. We are flat out weighing lambs at least twice a week for most of the time from August through to April. Currently using a 'Farm IT', three way manual crate, with a true test head. Works well, and if you have good dogs, a prattley and a good technique, you can put a hell of a lot of lambs through very quick.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Do you find with the combi clamp you're constantly holding back the lamb in the race not to distort the reading?

Just close the door. Then open the door before you release the clamped lamb. This let's the next one see his mate disappearing and they follow on nicely.

 

[hilux]

Just close the door. Then open the door before you release the clamped lamb. This let's the next one see his mate disappearing and they follow on nicely.

I must have been having a blonde moment then. Been dagging sheep through it the last few days and I've opened and closed it that much I forgot all about it
Thanks for reminding me

 

[unlacedgecko]

I must have been having a blonde moment then. Been dagging sheep through it the last few days and I've opened and closed it that much I forgot all about it
Thanks for reminding me

I've been dragging a fair few as well. Another 100 to do tomorrow...

Blonde moment? Are you another female member who everyone assumes is male?

What sort of speed (sheep/hr) are you getting through it?

 

[hilux]

Are you going to be on the rappa stand at the RWAS?

 

[neilo]

Do you find with the combi clamp you're constantly holding back the lamb in the race not to distort the reading?

I find most stand back OK, but you're always going to get an odd nutjob that pushes on. If you've got kit that automatically reads & weighs, it surely won't know when that's happened, it will just record an incorrect weight.
Or you can just the gate across, but that would be a pita with any number imo.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Are you going to be on the rappa stand at the RWAS?

I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know as soon as I find out.

 

[hilux]

Getting through about 40 an hour but haven't split the ewes from the lambs . Last year when I split them ,be doing 50+/hr. Have you got one? What rates are you achieving ?

 

[hilux]

I find most stand back OK, but you're always going to get an odd nutjob that pushes on. If you've got kit that automatically reads & weighs, it surely won't know when that's happened, it will just record an incorrect weight.
Or you can just the gate across, but that would be a pita with any number imo.

If you're standing towards the back of the clamp , by putting all your weight in one corner do you still get an accurate weight of the lamb?

 

[unlacedgecko]

Getting through about 40 an hour but haven't split the ewes from the lambs . Last year when I split them ,be doing 50+/hr. Have you got one? What rates are you achieving ?

I was doing some for a client last week but only achieving 25/hr with weight recording at the same time. Looking for ways to improve my work rate.

I've got one I've mounted on a caravan chassis in an attempt to increase mobility. Not yet used it in anger though...

https://twitter.com/SheepLeepLtd/status/846639711154311168

 

[neilo]

If you're standing towards the back of the clamp , by putting all your weight in one corner do you still get an accurate weight of the lamb?

The weight seems to be fairly consistent wherever I stand. When I was drawing a few bunches of fat lambs with it, I was moving about on the pedal, tagging them, moving the shedding gate and dragging odd ones. The weights stayed level all the while.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Are you going to be on the rappa stand at the RWAS?

Not planning working but I'll be there for a day. What day you going?

If there's an emergency I'll probably get roped into demoing fencing or similar.

 

[redcoo235]

We have a Prattley 3 way auto drafter, amazing bit of kit. Had it for a year now and have just about finished getting it built into our handling system. You need an adjustable V race on the lead up to it so you can guarantee single file sheep going up to it. Had a look at all the others on the market but found the nudge gate on the prattley to be the best.