Auto Weigher delivers accuracy getting cattle to market using passive handling innovation

StrongBó AgriTech is hoping beef producers will “slide” into higher profits by using its Auto Weigher.

One of the 14 companies selected for the Conexus AgTech Accelerator, StrongBó will participate in a three-month program before finishing off with an appearance at Ag in Motion in Saskatoon July 21-23.

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The automated livestock system is a portable front-foot system that saves time and lessens stress on cattle as they get ready for market, using up-to-date data.

“When it comes to selling, selling at the right time, if you have an honest conversation with a really big feedlot owner, they will tell you their slide gives them pretty good insurance when they are buying,” said Micheál McInerney, co-founder of StrongBó and inventor of the first prototype on his small beef farm in Ireland.

“By being able to know exactly what weight they are when you are selling them is massive.”

Those weights are aided by accurate, real-time data for beef and dairy operations in a system that takes mere minutes to set up.

Cattle step onto the sturdy, galvanized steel platform voluntarily in passive handling to lower stress and promote weight gain. It is aided by a treat of a salt or molasses block, where they linger for a handful of minutes. The built-in EID reader scans their ear tag, and the front-foot platform captures partial body weight.

McInerney has seen approximately 80 per cent of cattle on a moderately sized pasture (100 animals) use the Auto Weigher, climbing to 90 per cent at feedlots. The number drops in large extensive pastures due to distance.

StrongBó moved to Ontario in 2020, where the company adapted its product to the rugged North American market with its larger pastures and feedlots. Putting wheels on it and turning it into a trailer allows for higher mobility by hauling it and putting it in strategic spots where the animals tend to gather with easy deployment.

“Once the animals get used to it, they know there’s salt here and they’re no longer afraid of it,” said McInerney, adding StrongBó often sees action 23 hours a day, with cattle stepping on the scale for data points in feedlots.

McInerney highlighted a Saskatchewan customer with 300 data points per day in a 120-head herd for 2,000 hits per week.

A high level of data is captured to the cloud, and weights, average daily gains and growth trends are tracked, taking out guess work. McInerney said weighing performances are accurate within two to five per cent in mob, individual and ADG scenarios.

Agriculture technology company Gallagher has noticed McInerney’s invention and has made it part of its next generation of animal performance monitoring systems.

“We’ve gone through all of the testing with Gallagher, all the validation and all of the hoops that you would expect a reputable company like that to put us through. It’s been very well tested,” said McInerney.

That front-foot weight is remarkably steady with many minutes per reading, and the company has matched thousands of those readings against full-body scale weights to build a calibration model.

StrongBó’s early traction has been in Australia, New Zealand and increasingly the United States, but the potential is also there for making greater inroads in the Canadian market. McInerney claims costs could be recouped in one year with accurate data helping avoid slide adjustments.

“Managing grass quality, knowing when the grass is dropping, are they gaining the weight I was expecting them to be gaining? Do I need to do something? Do I need to do nothing? Am I doing what I should be doing to keep them on track, so that they’re the right weight when it comes to selling them because maybe I don’t want to keep them after October, November,” said McInerney.

“I have a testimonial (from Montana) when he wants to go out to weigh his animals, it’s a full day with five guys and a portable setup he brings out into the pasture and rounds them up and it’s an expensive ordeal. Where he’s just started to adopt our equipment, and instead of having five guys for a full day, he does five minutes and just checks his phone.”