Coburn hog tape lbs

Details

Getting a hog onto a scale is a job. Sorting, moving and holding a market pig to read a number costs time and stresses the animal, and most small barns and acreage setups have no scale in the alley at all. This tape does the same job with the pig standing quietly in the pen. It is read around the heart girth, just behind the front legs, and the printed scale converts that circumference to an estimated live weight in pounds. Take the reading with the pig standing square and relaxed; a hog that is humped up or stretched out will read off. Two or three measurements a week through finishing gives you a growth curve rather than a guess. That matters most at two points: dosing and marketing. Medications and dewormers are given by weight, and being out by fifty pounds either way is not a small error. Coming up to market, knowing whether a pen is sitting at 240 or 270 pounds tells you whether to pull them now or feed another ten days. The tape lives in a pocket and needs no maintenance beyond keeping it dry.