User Guide

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Cody Zesiger, Joshua Dallin, Matthew Garcia, Nicole Reed

USU Extension created the livestock weight calculators to assist youth and their leaders. The web URL is https://extension.usu.edu/4h-livestock-calculator. The calculators can be used to reliably predict a market animal's weight as well as the average daily weight gain. The calculators' design includes examples for bovines (beef), porcines (swine), ovines (sheep), and caprines (goats) , but they are useful for calculating the values described above for many other species. Additionally, the calculators work well when environmental conditions remain relatively constant, e.g., housing, rations, exercise, etc. If a market animal's living conditions change, then the accuracy of the calculators may be diminished. Before you use the calculators you will need the following information: 

• Two separate weight measurements for the market animal.

• The number of days in between the two measurements.

• The number of days until the fair.

• The date of the most current weight measurement.

How to Use the 4-H Livestock Calculators

1. Go to https://extension.usu.edu/4H-Livestock-Calculator from any internet-connected device. The website works well on major browsers, including mobile versions.

2. Select your animal's species by clicking on the corresponding image. For example, if you wanted to predict a steer's final weight, the image of the steer would be selected.

3. If the average daily weight gain is already known, use the predicted fair weight calculator, see Image 1. If the average daily weight gain is unknown, use the average daily gain calculator to calculate it first, see Image 2.

4. Enter the information for each of the fillable fields into the correct calculator.

   Example: calculators to predict the final weight of his/her market steer. The youth doesn't have the average daily gain (ADG) calculated yet so that the youth will use the average daily gain calculator first. They have two weight measurements. The first weight (624 lbs) was obtained 100 days before the second weight 870 lbs). The youth inputs the weights and days, as seen in Image 2. The calculator automatically calculates the steer's ADG of 2.46 lbs/day, as seen in Image 2. The youth then enters that ADG, the animal's second weight, and the number of days until the fair from the date of the second weight as seen in Image 1. The predicted weight will automatically be calculated and displayed (1228 lbs) as seen in Image 1.

5. After recording the results, click the reset button to calculate the values for a new animal.