Hi there,
We’re VERY close to finishing the design of our long-awaited BreedELITE Fleece Weigh System.
We have been working on this with a small group of progressive farmers for more than three years, but we are finally going to wrap it up. We will be releasing it in November.
Our aim was to revolutionise in shed fleece weighing by removing the need and cost for printing barcodes and totally eliminating the need for data entry at the end of the day.
This system will be entirely focused on “Helping Wool Producers Collect and Use Data During Shearing” It includes the BreedELITE Sheep Software, super accurate electronic scales, a barcode reader, fleece cards and all the training videos plus the support you need to ‘“AUTOMATE YOUR FLEECE WEIGHING.”
The fleece weights will be automatically captured and then assigned to a sheep in the software. You can also display stored data like fibre diameter to assist with classing and to see averages as you go.
HOWEVER, we need your help. Before we finalise everything and commence manufacturing, we need to make sure we have covered everything.
That is where you come in. Please take a few minutes to answer this super-short survey—there is really only one thing we want to ask you . . .
What are your two things related to Automated Fleece Weighing that we absolutely NEED to make sure the system can deliver?”
No manual data entry and multiple fleeces piled up on the floor
How do you get contract shearer’s on board. Any extra step is extra $
Needs to be easy to use.
Large platform making it faster and easier to sit down fleeces but them also easy to pick them up correctly again.
Easy to manage when multiple fleeces come off the board together.
Needs to be simple to set up and use or train shed staff to use
Automated Fleece Weighing system must have easy data capture – straight into BreedELITE records – and plenty of training. I understand these two things are already central to your new system.
1. Must be idiot proof
2 Any infrastructure must be small so doesn’t take up much room
3 has to be able to cope with 200/ run pace
1: Accuracy – need precise weight and match fleece to correct sheep ID.
2: Speed / Ease of use – needs to be able to keep up on a busy shed floor – but flexible enough to cope if unexpected little issues pop up.
3: (Pipe Dream) It would be great if mid-side sample could be taken at shearing consistently then bagged and bar coded ready to be sent away for analysis.
Simple and quick with minimal extra equipment. KISS
Reliability- cant have software or hardware failure when got shearing team going flat out.
1: needs to be idiot proof. Without being rude some people working in the shed get perplexed by weighing fleeces at the best of times so it needs to be extremely simple
2: minimal cords and devices as possible. Just means more to go wrong the more things we have to operate. Shearing won’t stop if the tech goes down so need to keep it minimal if possible
Look forward to it coming out
Can operate without internet in the shed
Super simple and easy to use technology that you don’t need to be a tech nerd to figure out problems if things go wrong
100% Accuracy of Data Entry into the software. Speed of Data Entry, easy to get fleeces in and out of the weigh table.
Must weigh the fleece, belly and skirtings.
Anything using a battery and a bluetooth connection must not turn itself off. Nothing worse than waiting for a bluetooth connection with three fleeces in front of you and the shearers are shearing the next one.
In our system the wool table weighs so the fleece is thrown on the table and the fleece can be skirted straight away after the weight has been recorded. My next step I want is to have two wool tables weighing so I can keep up to 3 shearers.
Eliminate errors with weighing
Ability to add other data at the same time as the fleece is weighed
Increase accuracy and reduce labour
Agree with Sam
It would have to be quick a easy to use
Shed staff proof. Very simple steps and not to much thinking required. Fast flow without holding up shed staff much with extra steps.
Shearing stand allocated to computer digitally when scanned then chosen from screen somehow once fleece weighed.
Need accuracy and speed while minimising Bluetooth and batteries where possible.
Would like to have a “bin line’ allocation too.
needs to be integrated and seemless
needs to be quick and easy to set up then use
Ability to enter stand number fleece came from as a backup if a number of fleeces come off board at once.
Eliminate the extra work after shearing, manual data entry, one stop shop
and multiple fleeces piled up
Needs to be quick, with reliable bluetooth connections. The whole system rapidly falls apart if one piece of equipment stops working.
1: Accuracy of all data, making sure it is attributed to the right animal with absolute accuracy – EID tags would be essential.
2: KISS – Simplicity and foolproof – eliminate all risk of human errors. Must have adequate power backup to eliminate power/battery failures. Should not require more than a simple induction of staff so they can competently operate the machine and teach others.
3: All data collected must be relevant and utilised to assist advance breeding decisions. No point in collecting irrelevant/non-commercial data.
4: Utilise the FibreScan machine (Eugene O’Sullivan and Don Morrison – NZ). This machine will quickly and accurately provide a wool test in 20 seconds per sample. With this machine, decisions can be immediate in relation to the sheep and or classing of any fleece. No futile bagging of samples and waiting two weeks and then bringing the sheep back into the yards for drafting/classing.
1- Simple, one button push operation
2- Speed, ability to weigh 200+ fleeces per run per weigh table
Needs to be able to keep up with shearing pace. In our case 4 shearers with no paper trail if possible. We had a old program that could stack sheep I’d in the computer until the fleece was weighed. Worked well but needed to remember order.
Is it possible to have a way of selecting the shearing stand on the stick reader when you scan the tag. So that when the fleece is put on the scales you can select the stand in which the Tag is related too.
Hi Tim “ At the moment all my focus is on meat eg prime lamb/mutton more lambs per ewe chasing Fertile genetics with better mothering ability next step is to decrease micron & ewe size/weight . I am in sure if or when wool becomes a focus in this enterprise . Good luck !!
A fail safe plan with technology failure. How is the user aware that the system is recording okay particularly identifying the sheep. If identification fails operator must know to manually identify sheep.
1. Simple operation that “anyone” in the shed could use in need.
2. Automated recording with digital operation (no need for pen/ paper)
KISS principle.
Has to be easy to set up, operate, reliable and not take up too much room.
Would be great if side sampling could be included some how. (maybe retro fitted later)
Looks like most people have already stated this, but it needs to be able to keep up with large numbers of fleeces coming off at once and without having to have fleeces sitting around waiting to be weighed.
No chance of loosing sheep I’d between the board & fleece weighing. Must do more than 1000 a day.
Speed, Accuracy (alarm or alert when an error has occurred) must be easy for shed staff to work. Ideally not too many cords or able to be kept out way? and if possible able to have computer tucked away so its just weigh platform and scanner for sheep id. This might be hard though if computer is the “alert screen” as previously mentioned?
All of the above…sound great. Very frustrating when Bluetooth connection needs resetting. Have a good plan B if need be. Have panel readers that register as the sheep are dragged out or when released.
I’d like to see the option to have the scales incorporated into wool tables, or multiple weigh table setups that incorporate the scale into it, and setup so all fleeces are scanned off every sheep through the shed. This could include an ear tag reader and bar code printer on every shearing stand. If their are two wool tables or alternatively two wool scales this would work well feeding into the final wool prep. In such a setup it would not be about getting ready to do fleece weighing we could just have fleece weighing as the standard. With Eid mandatory in Victoria if producers simply keep the sequence of all their joinings they will get real time across years within flock analysis on an ongoing basis. Which is great for proving or disproving your own beliefs about how much different joinings are adding to your wool cut. Next step would be to include a micron reader in the scale.
Setting the fleece down twice(to weigh and then skirt) is the single biggest inefficiency with the current system.
So scales in the wool table plus some means to better track fleece and sheep ID through this process would be great.
ATM we dedicate a person to scan EID, print barcode and track fleeces over the fleece weighing table – expensive and boring!
1 an error alert if duplicate record for individual sheep BEFORE they are down the chute
2 simple to use
3designed around easiest in shed use as staff will take easiest/fastest route when under pressure
1] We shear every 6 months so use tubs for weighing, fleece in one, oddments in another, so scales need to tare negative when tubs are off the scales.
2] Has to be bullet proof, if something goes wrong it’s hard to stop shearers, and before you know it your missed some.
1. Quick & accurate
2. Easy to keep track of sheep fleece before being weighed
3. Simple/cheap technology so can have backup or 2 of
1. Absolute Accuracy and simple (KISS) to track fleece from board to scales / wool table, even when fleeces are required to be put on floor waiting to be skirted, so data is not lost, between multiple fleeces and animals.
2. Needs to have a light or loud alarm advising wool handle staff the weight has been captured to improve efficiencies and time, that back logs the pipeline in wool handling around the classing table.
3. Need to be able to have a override section, if you have a power outage, mid session, so you can input data and reset, without loosing all data and accuracy captured prior to interruption.