Recording weights and tracking growth

Most calf rearers can tell you their weaning age off the top of their head. Almost none can tell you their weaning weight. That's the gap this guide is trying to close — because weaning weight, and the average daily gain that gets you there, predict more about a heifer's future than almost any other number.

The targets, in one card

How to record a weight in Calfmate

Weights live on the calf passport, in the Growth section.

1. Open the calf — Calves list → tap the calf, or scan her tag into the search box.
2. Scroll to Growth.
3. Fill the weigh-in form: Weight (kg), Date (defaults today, backdate if needed), Notes (optional — "estimated" or "off scales").
4. Tap Record weigh-in.

The page also shows the growth chart (every weigh-in plotted) and the weigh-in history table (with edit/delete buttons). Record as many weigh-ins as you want — two minimum gives you ADG, more gives you a trend line you can trust.

The two weights you should never skip

If you only do two weights on a calf in her entire pre-weaning life, make them:

1. Birth weight — recorded on the calving form (or backfilled on the passport edit if you forgot). Without this, ADG calculations start from your first later weigh-in instead.
2. Weaning weight — recorded the day you take her off milk. This gives you your headline pre-weaning ADG, the single most useful number for benchmarking your shed.

Two weights. One number. Sets you up to know whether next year's mob is doing better or worse than this year's.

A 30-minute weigh-in session

Three steps, repeated:

1. Set up scales near the shed door.
2. Open Calfmate on your phone. Calves list, search box up top.
3. Each calf: walk on, read weight, type her tag into search ("234"), tap her, tap Growth, type the weight, tap Record weigh-in.

A practiced operator does this in about 20 seconds per calf. 80 calves in under 30 minutes. Twice a year, that's an hour of work for a year of usable data.

If you don't have scales

A heart-girth tape works fine for the early weights. Cheap, simple, the same operator gets within a couple of kilos each time. Record the tape estimate and add "estimated" in the notes. Just be consistent — same tape, same method, same place on the chest.

If you've got nothing, even a careful visual estimate beats nothing on file. Calfmate won't judge you.

Three small tips that improve every weigh-in

Same time of day across visits

Before the AM feed is best. A full belly adds 1–2 kg of noise that makes ADG comparisons messy.

Three points beat two

A single wonky weigh-in skews ADG forever. If you can manage a quick mid-weigh between birth and weaning, the trend line gets a lot more trustworthy.

Look at the chart, not just the number

The passport growth chart catches dips that the raw "current weight" misses. A flat spot in the chart is sometimes the only sign a calf was off-feed three weeks ago.

What's not built (yet)

• No automatic scale integration — all weights typed in.
• No target-weight overlay on the chart ("where she should be" line).
• No pen-level growth aggregation. Reports does farm-wide; passport does individual.

One thing to take away

A weigh-in takes 30 seconds. A guessed weaning weight is the classic "I thought she was bigger than that" moment six months later. Get the scales out, even if just twice a year — at birth and at weaning. That's enough to know whether your shed is improving or sliding.