How to Measure Cattle

Weighing cattle -- or livestock in general -- is important because it give the farmer critical information. Livestock owners need to know how much to feed the animal, and how much medication to give an animal. Owners like to keep records of how animals grow and how much feed they eat. Farmers with beef cattle may want to know how much money they will make off a specific animal or the whole herd. Measuring cattle is also useful to figure out if a cow is underfed or overfed. You need to know weight to figure that information out. Sometimes a scale isn't available but there are other methods you can employ to measure your cattle.

Things You'll Need

• Weight tape
• Tape measure
• Paper and pencil

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Instructions

1. • 1

     Avoid feeding or watering the cattle for around 12 hours before you measure them.

   • 2

     Make sure the legs are square. Wrap the tape around the cattle, just behind the shoulders, in the area of the heart girth.

   • 3

     Look at the tape for an inch-to-pound conversion.

   • 4

     Measure the cow's length from the point of the shoulder to the point of the rump with a measuring tape. Write down the measurement so you don't forget.