Jordon Hibbs, whose children are part of the McKinley Vikings 4-H, describes the need for a new barn and SAS single animal livestock scale: “The weigh-in used to be an all-day event. We got to the show barn early in the morning to make room for the mechanical scale, brought the scale in and then spent the rest of the day trying to corral cattle onto the scale.” There was no alley system to guide the animals in an orderly fashion, making the process difficult, time-consuming and potentially unsafe. Without an alley and chute, adult volunteers were responsible for controlling the young cattle who, at this point, were not reasonably halter broken and could easily become unmanageable.

Seeing a need for improvement in both process time and safety, Hibbs approached the Polk County Fair board and asked for a separate space to weigh animals. Members of the fair board evaluated the process and approved the building of a brand-new barn that would be used specifically for weigh-ins. However, with no funding source, the project would need sponsors and donations to begin.

The McKinley Vikings 4-H immediately started fundraising for the new barn. “It was great to see the initiative the kids took,” says Hibbs. “They piled into cars and approached the community for donations. Many of the kids even donated their own money.”

It didn’t take long. Shortly after the scale barn was approved, enough funds were raised to start building. Before construction could officially begin, however, plans for the building needed to be finalized. Since the main purpose of the building is to weigh animals, choosing the right scale was arguably the most important piece of the puzzle.

“There was no question in my mind, we wanted a Rice Lake scale,” Hibbs explains. Having previously worked in the area, he knew Rice Lake livestock scales are manufactured at Rice Lake’s corporate headquarters in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, just an hour east of the Polk County fairgrounds.

A mere six months after the fair board approved the building, the new scale barn was ready for use. Inside, an SAS single animal livestock scale, 920i® weight indicator and LaserLight2 remote display provide a reliable, accurate and modern weigh-in and data capture process.

An alley system guides cattle onto the SAS single animal livestock scale. With its 48-inch solid kick panel sides, thick wall tubing and optional Pearson head gate, the SAS single animal livestock scale provides safety for both operators and animals. With the new system and facility, weighing approximately 100 cattle takes just three hours—a huge improvement over the all-day duration of weigh-ins on the original system.

Rice Lake’s SAS single animal livestock scale not only provides an immediate improvement, it also ensures future compliance with state legislation. On May 1, 2021, Wisconsin will enforce legislation requiring all fairs weighing animals to use a certified Legal for Trade scale. With full U.S. Legal for Trade approval, all Rice Lake livestock scales meet this requirement, as well as utilize the most rugged design in the industry. All models have been thoroughly evaluated through Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to calculate how they will respond to real-world physical forces—especially important for animal weighing where impacts and shock loads are expected to occur.

For the Polk County Fair, the SAS single animal livestock scale, 920i indicator and LaserLight2 display provide an ideal solution to improve their weighing process and supply accurate, consistent weights. To prepare for legislation being passed in 2021, any fair can follow Polk County’s lead and look no further than northwest Wisconsin to find a manufactured-in-the-USA, Legal for Trade livestock scale.