With major processors having reduced their maximum dead weights in recent years, below what they’ve traditionally been and in many cases driven by the demands of their supermarket customers, the penalties for supplying cattle ‘out of spec’ or ‘over the top’ can be costly.

Many beef finishers become adept at estimating live weights as well their own animals’ killing out percentages. Yet most of them still run their beasts across scales at regular intervals … just to be sure