BBH Livestock Scale

How does the BBH work?

The system has three parts: a low steel platform resting on four load cells, a crate that holds the animal centrally on the platform, and an indicator that shows the weight. Once the animal is in and the gate is shut, its weight spreads across the four corners. Each load cell turns its share of the force into an electrical signal, and the indicator adds these signals together to give a single live weight.

The signal is digitised by a high-resolution 24-bit analogue-to-digital converter, which in practice means the scale can tell weights apart in small steps. When the animal settles for a moment, the operator presses the HOLD key; the figure freezes on the display and can still be read and logged after the animal has walked out. The person keeping records no longer has to catch a number on screen while the animal fidgets.

Choosing a capacity: 1500, 2000 or 3000 kg

The BBH comes in three standard capacities, each with its own reading step:

• 1500 kg × 0.5 kg: suits farms that mostly weigh calves, young stock and heifers. A half-kilogram step lets you follow growth more finely when young animals are weighed at short intervals.
• 2000 kg × 1 kg: the middle option, covering most mixed herds of finishing cattle and adult cows.
• 3000 kg × 1 kg: for farms that weigh big bulls and heavy breeding stock, where the platform often takes rough treatment.

Choosing capacity on an animal’s standing weight alone can mislead. An animal that rushes into the crate or jumps inside briefly puts more than its own weight onto the platform. Say the heaviest bull in your herd weighs 1100 kg: the 1500 kg model looks adequate on paper, but with the 2000 kg model the margin grows to 2000 − 1100 = 900 kg, so the load cells meet those sudden knocks with far more headroom. The platform is built to withstand overloading, yet leaving a margin in daily use helps the scale keep weighing accurately for years.

Placement in the shed and dimensions

The standard BBH measures 100 × 200 × 180 cm, a crate in which a grown animal can walk in and stand comfortably but cannot turn round. If breed or age differences in your herd call for a shorter or longer crate, the platform and crate can be made to the size you need, and capacity can be set to order as well.

Because the platform is only 80 mm high, an animal steps onto it as if it were still walking on the floor rather than climbing a step. Even newly arrived stock seeing the scale for the first time tend to hesitate less. A few points help with placement:

• The floor must be level and load-bearing, with all four corners in full contact and no rocking.
• The crate entry and exit should follow the natural direction in which animals move through the shed.
• Mount the indicator on a wall or post where the operator can see both the animal and the display at once.

If you would rather use one scale across several pens than keep it in a single shed, the BBH can also be supplied as a mobile version on wheels.

Indicator, records and drafting

The BBH can be paired with an LCD or LED indicator. Choose LED where the display must be read in bright outdoor light, and LCD where low power use comes first. Its internal rechargeable battery keeps the indicator running in paddocks with no mains supply, and in the shed it runs from a 220 V AC socket. Automatic switch-off saves the battery when the scale is idle.

Over RS 232, readings go straight to a computer, and they can be printed as tickets or labels. For farms that keep their records in herd software, this stops figures from getting mixed up when copied by hand. The unit of weight can be switched between kilograms and pounds if needed.

The HI-OK-LO check-weighing function on the indicator can serve as a drafting tool on a cattle farm. For example, if you enter 550 kg as the lower limit and 650 kg as the upper limit for animals ready for sale, those inside the band show “OK” and lighter ones show “LO”; thanks to the audible signal, the operator knows which animal goes to a separate pen without looking at the display.

Durability and everyday care

Damp, manure and washing water make a livestock shed a tough place for electronics. The four load cells of the BBH are fully waterproof to IP68 and resist corrosion. The platform and crate are finished with electrostatic powder coating, which stands up to knocks and wet conditions much longer than ordinary paint.

For a long service life it is enough to scrape manure off the platform after weighing, clear bedding that collects underneath from time to time and touch up scratched paint promptly. At switch-on the indicator tracks zero automatically; if a little dirt stays on the platform, manual zeroing or the tare function removes that weight from the result.