Technology in beef production finally has a business case
Technology in beef production finally has a business case
https://farmtario.com/op-ed/technology-beef-production-data/
Publish Date: 2026-06-14 06:12:00
Source Domain: farmtario.com
The beef sector has always lagged other agricultural sectors in technology adoption.
There are good reasons. Much of the industry still manages cattle on pasture, which is excellent for many environmental, land use and efficiency reasons. But when the cattle are mostly looking after themselves on pasture, there’s not that much need for technological intervention.
There are signs that this may be changing, and I’ve been watching for successful use cases for technology that are tentatively edging into beef production.
I grew up in the dairy industry, where data-driven decision-making has been a reality for more than 30 years with milk quality, genetics and identified livestock go through two or three daily interventions for milking.
I’ve figured that the ability to efficiently gather data, which earns farmers more money, will be the breakthrough.
See Farmtario for my report on how Schaus Land and Cattle is using StrongBó automatic weighing scales to hit the most profitable market weights for cattle.
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The rapid escalation in cattle prices over the past couple of years shows little sign of abating, with global demand for protein, and that means the value of shipping cattle at appropriate weights is higher than ever before.
Hog farmers have known this and have been using autosorters, which weigh and sort the pigs that are ready for market and hit the most profitable part of the grid, for decades. Pig genetics are more uniform and predictable than cattle genetics, so there’s likely even more value to be found in being able to accurately ship cattle than pigs.
Once Schaus had the StrongBó weighers in his barn, he found ways to make sure he was not paying a discount due to an overweight steer, or not making maximum profit on an underweight animal.
He’s putting permanent StrongBó weighing systems in each of the six pens in the new…
