Wet weather over the last week has seen a big drive to house cattle around the country. With stores and weanlings now inside for the winter, it is a good time to weigh cattle.

Weighing stores will give an accurate handle on how animals performed at grass.

It can be carried out while treating animals for internal and external parasites, reducing the risk of -under and over-dosing cattle.

But, more importantly, it will give a sound basis to decide if animals can be killed out of the shed without losing money or if stores are better off sold live now.

With weanlings, physically weighing animals will highlight the best maternal cows in the herd and allow a weaning percentage to be calculated.

It will also give a handle on how heavy replacement heifers are.

Knowing the weight of maiden will allow animals to be put on a tailored winter feed programme to meet target breeding weight next year.

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Getting a handle on housing weights for cattle

As more cattle are housed, weighing stores and weanlings will give a good insight as to offload now or winter animals on farm.