On any working ranch or farm, producers depend on powerful performance measurement tools to evaluate the health and wellbeing of their herd. Key measurement tools need to be dependable and rugged, including weigh scales, which provide ranchers with an assessment of calves’ weight gain. This allows them to receive accurate treatment dosages and proper nutrition as well as a glimpse into the animal’s health and performance.
Rice Lake Weighing Systems has been building and perfecting livestock scales since 2011. Originally founded in 1946 in Rice Lake, WI, as Thomas & Johnson Scale Service, the company provided pivots and bearings for mechanical scales used on dairy farms in the area. Eventually, the company changed its name to Rice Lake Weighing Systems and has been making an impact on the weighing and measurement industry ever since.
By utilizing advanced manufactured processes and state-of-the-art technology, the company has become a global leader in livestock scales.
“Our company vision is ‘Take care of the customer and the rest of the business will take care of itself” and ‘To be the best by every measure.’ We do our very best to take care of the customer and make sure our products are of very high quality,” says Sam Solie, product manager for livestock scales at Rice Lake. “Our staff works hard to make sure we are here for our customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. Over the years, we have expanded our company and added new products.”
Indeed, Rice Lake offers a wide variety of products to help satisfy customers and the needs of their applications. The company’s stationary livestock scale has been updated and is one of the most popular models. Specifically, the MAS-LM stationary mechanical animal scale provides reliable, accurate weighing for ranchers and processors that prefer a mechanical pipe lever weighing system.
“We offer this scale in many different sizes and have the opportunity to do customs to help satisfy customer needs,” Solie says. “The stationary scales are very robust and built to last.”
Rice Lake’s stationary weighing models comes in a variety of sizes and boast various flooring options. In addition, the main weighbridge on stationary models is built with heavy-duty steel to stand up to the toughest jobs. Rice Lake also understands that the layout and functionality of each ranch and farm is different, so there are many different style customs to fit in sale barns, ranches, feedlots and county fairs.
“Our mobile animal scale is another popular model that customers use to be able to go out and weigh their animals in the field instead of needing to bring them on-site. Currently, we are working on updates to our mobile scale, with updated features customers are requesting,” Solie says. The current model of the MAS-M mobile livestock scale features a low-profile weighing platform to allow for faster and easier multi-site livestock weighing.
“On our mobile scale, we offer a very easy-to-use scale with instrumentation. The indicator on the side of the scale helps simplify weighing and allows producers to keep track of animals the customer is shipping out,” Solie adds.
Thorough Evaluation
While Rice Lake has developed some of the most durable scales to meet the specific needs of farmers and ranchers alike, there is not a “one size fits all” weighing solution. The company strives to provide custom products that are perfectly suited to every application.
When looking for a livestock scale, Solie advises producers to consider some key factors – namely, scales need to be accurate, durable and easy to use. As Solie explains, having an accurate scale to weigh livestock on-site is a huge benefit that lowers costs by avoiding shrink. To help calculate the potential savings when investing in a Rice Lake livestock scale, the company provides a simple livestock shrink calculator on its website.
“When evaluating weighing systems, the scales need to be durable in order to withstand the job of moving and weighing animals. Making sure the scale and instrumentation is simple to use is another big item,” Solie says. “When you are out weighing your animals, you want to make sure it is easy to weigh them without having to do hours of set up each time. Once you are done weighing the animals, it is also imperative that the scale and instrumentation is easy to close down.”
In addition, when purchasing a livestock scale, customers need to evaluate their herd size and if they need the scale on-site permanently or require a mobile unit for different locations.
“Shrink is a big factor that needs to be considered when you own livestock. If you send your cattle to a sale barn to be weighed, the stress they go through during the travel process makes them lose a good amount in shrink,” Solie says. “The benefits of weighing the animals on-site is that you are able to weigh them before shipping – saving money that you would typically lose in shrink.”
Continuous Evolution
Since its inception nearly 80 years ago, Rice Lake has continued to enhance and improve its product offerings, expanding into a myriad of industries. Because of the company’s focus on continuous improvement, the Rice Lake team is well-versed in incorporating technological advancements and state-of-the-art instrumentation into its product offerings.
Looking ahead, Solie says data will continue to be “king” within the livestock weighing industry.
“The more data we can provide from the scale to a rancher’s database or herd management software drives overall process efficiency gain,” Solie says.
In addition, producers have come to rely on technology that provides continuous feedback on the status of their livestock. That’s why communication, specifically being able to connect wirelessly between the scale and software, is paramount for today’s producers. As such, Rice Lake will be offering even more communication options to keep producers “in the know.”
“We will also see scales with self-reporting diagnostics and self-healing capabilities,” Solie says. “The scale’s uptime is critical for ranch operations, being down costs time and money. We are working towards scales that monitor their health and report errors and potential concerns. The next step is to create scale systems that can automatically adapt to error conditions and allow scales to continue to work at critical times.”
To learn more about Rice Lake Weighing Systems and its complete line of livestock weighing systems, visit www.ricelake.com.
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