MAPLE CREEK, Sask. – A Saskatchewan auction market owner is hoping a computer snapshot that predicts the finished weight of cattle will help him maintain his market share.
The Maple Creek Auction Market was crowded with tire kickers, sellers and order buyers last week during the first sale of cattle scanned with a new computer imaging system.
The Musculo Skeletal Imaging system uses two computer-generated pictures, plus frame, muscle and weight to predict the estimated time on feed and the finished weight of animals.
It was the breeds, crossbreeds and backcrosses of cattle that finally convinced owners Ken and his son Kim Crandall to pay the $7,000 licensing fee for two computer imaging systems.
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“There are so many different breeds and so many crossbreeds and so many people telling you the color of the cattle don’t matter when it comes to butchering,” said Ken Crandall.
By using the computer he hopes to eliminate the second guessing over how an animal will finish and how to group animals.
Crandall doesn’t expect everyone to adopt the scanning system overnight. He estimates it will take two years before producers and buyers will believe in the financial benefits of scanned cattle.
After the sale, Crandall said the imaging system was well received.
“We had several lots of steers over 90 cents. It was a strong sale.”
While it costs $5 a head for sellers to use the system, the manufacturers say it can return $5 to $20 a head when selling the animal.
“We put it in for the benefit of producers who support us,” said Crandall. More than 40,000 animals pass through the auction market each year. Most of those cattle are from southwestern Saskat-chewan.
The computer divides the cattle into three groups. Type A are more muscular cattle. They’re shorter, thicker, earlier maturing cattle that finish around 1,100 pounds. Type B are medium-muscled cattle and should finish around 1,200 lb. Type C cattle are long, lean cattle that finish around 1,300 lb.
Benefit to feedlot owners
The computer will help feedlot owners buy a uniform group of cattle that will finish at the same time, said Joe Hurley of Primeline Livestock Marketing of Spearfish, S.D., the marketers of the machine.
That’s where the financial bonus is found. By selling a group of uniform cattle the feedlot makes its money back in bonuses and discounts from the packing plants.
It took three years to develop the computer program, said Hurley. About 450,000 cattle have been scanned since it started in 1993. There are 13 scanning systems in use across Canada and the U.S.
“Shape has always been a determining factor in the end product,” said Hurley.
Only with with recent computer advances have they been able to combine livestock theory with computer technology, he said.
Terry Schetzsle, owner of Schetzsle Livestock Inc., of Veteran, Alta., came to Maple Creek to see the system on its first day of operation.
“The idea’s good, but it remains to be seen if it’s feasible,” he said.
Even though he doesn’t know if buyers and sellers will adopt the system, Schetzsle said he doesn’t want to miss any new technology.
“I don’t want to let the competition get ahead,” he said.
Not everyone is convinced the machine is better than the eye. Roy Rutledge, of Assiniboia Livestock Auction, said not all the flaws have been worked out of the system.
“If I was happy it would still be here,” said Rutledge about the machine that was moved from Assiniboia to Maple Creek.
“I found it wasn’t feasible,” said Rutledge.
