5 Best Sheep Weighing Crates For Premium Old Farmers Swear By

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. For a sheep farmer, that simple truth comes down to one thing: weight. An experienced eye can tell you a lot, but it can’t tell you if a lamb gained 8 ounces a day or if your drench dose is off by a critical 10 percent. Getting a handle on accurate weights is the first step from simply keeping sheep to truly managing them for health and productivity.

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Why Accurate Sheep Weights Are Non-Negotiable

Knowing a sheep’s weight is the foundation of good husbandry. It’s not about chasing numbers for the sake of it; it’s about making informed, timely decisions. Under-dosing for parasites because you guessed a weight leads to drench resistance, a problem that can devastate a small flock. Over-dosing wastes expensive medicine and can be harmful.

Weight is also your best early warning system. A sheep that stops gaining or starts losing weight is often the first sign of illness, long before you see more obvious symptoms. Tracking daily gain in lambs tells you which ewes are milking well and which lambs are thriving. It removes the guesswork from your breeding program.

Ultimately, this data drives profitability and sustainability. You know exactly when lambs reach market weight, preventing feed waste on animals that are ready to go. You can identify your most efficient animals—the ones that convert grass into growth—and build your flock around them. It’s the difference between farming by chance and farming with purpose.

IAE Lamb Weigher: A Lightweight Champion

If you need a simple, no-fuss tool for one specific job, the IAE Lamb Weigher is it. Its biggest advantage is its weight—or lack thereof. It’s light enough for one person to carry and set up in any pasture, which is a game-changer if your flock is spread out.

The design is brilliantly simple. It features sheeted sides to encourage lambs to walk in and a mesh floor that lets droppings fall through, keeping the weighing area cleaner. The front and back gates are easy to operate, even when your hands are full. You just add a compatible weigh scale indicator and load bars, and you’re ready to go.

This is not the tool for weighing your full-grown rams. It is, as the name implies, a lamb weigher. But for its intended purpose—tracking the growth of young stock quickly and efficiently—it’s one of the best, most reliable options out there. It does one job, and it does it exceptionally well.

The Ritchie Combi Clamp: A Multi-Purpose Crate

The Ritchie Combi Clamp is less of a weigh crate and more of a complete sheep handling system. Its primary function is to safely restrain the animal, making a dozen other jobs easier and safer for both you and the sheep. Weighing is just one of its many talents.

The system uses a clever scissor action to clamp the sheep securely by its middle. Once held, the animal is remarkably calm. This gives you hands-free access for tasks like dagging, drenching, vaccinating, or checking feet. The whole unit can be fitted with load bars and an indicator to capture weights while you work.

This is the choice for the farmer who values efficiency and wants to minimize physical strain. Instead of wrestling a ewe to trim her feet, you simply clamp her and get the job done. It’s a significant investment, but it replaces the need for a separate crate, a turnover cradle, and a lot of backache. For a one-person operation, the safety and labor-saving benefits are hard to overstate.

Prattley Manual Drafter: Precision Sorting

When your flock grows, sorting sheep becomes a major chore. The Prattley Manual Drafter is designed to solve that problem with elegant simplicity. It combines a reliable weigh crate with a three-way manual drafting gate, turning a two-person job into a smooth, one-person flow.

The process is straightforward. A sheep enters the crate, you record its weight, and then, with a simple pull of a handle, you direct it to one of three exit gates. You can send market lambs left, replacement ewe lambs right, and anything that needs re-weighing straight ahead. It dramatically speeds up the process of separating animals based on weight or any other criteria.

The Prattley system is known for being lightweight yet incredibly durable, a hallmark of their aluminum construction. This isn’t the cheapest option, but it’s an investment in workflow efficiency. If you find yourself spending hours every month wrestling with gates to sort your flock, this machine will pay for itself in saved time and frustration.

Sydell Spin Doctor: For Easy Sheep Handling

The Sydell Spin Doctor prioritizes one thing above all else: easy access to the animal with minimal physical effort. This is the tool for anyone tired of the back-breaking work of tipping sheep for hoof trimming or health checks. It’s a handling chute first, and a weigher second.

The "spin" mechanism allows you to secure the sheep and then rotate it onto its side, presenting its underside and feet at a comfortable working height. This is revolutionary for anyone with a bad back. It reduces stress on the animal and makes detailed work like treating foot rot or checking an udder much safer and more thorough.

While its main job is handling, the chute is easily fitted with a scale system to capture weights. However, its design isn’t geared for high-speed weighing and sorting like a drafter. The Spin Doctor is for the shepherd who needs to perform intensive, hands-on tasks and wants a tool that makes that work as painless as possible.

Gallagher Auto Drafter: Tech-Forward Weighing

For the data-obsessed farmer who wants ultimate efficiency, the Gallagher Auto Drafter is the top of the line. This system integrates Electronic ID (EID) tag reading with automatic weighing and sorting. It’s as close to hands-off sheep management as you can get.

Here’s how it works: the sheep walks into the crate, an EID reader scans its tag, the scale records its weight, and the computer does the rest. Based on rules you set beforehand—like target weight, age, or daily gain—the machine automatically opens the correct gate to sort the animal. It logs all this data for you, creating a powerful performance history for your entire flock.

Let’s be clear: this is a serious piece of equipment for a serious operation. It’s overkill for a dozen pet sheep. But for a hobby farmer scaling up or someone focused on performance-based breeding, the labor savings and data quality are unmatched. It transforms a full day’s work for three people into a few hours’ work for one.

Choosing Your Crate: Portability vs. Durability

The first question you must answer is where and how you’ll be using the crate. This often comes down to a fundamental tradeoff: do you need something you can move around easily, or something built to stay put and last forever? There’s no right answer, only what’s right for your farm.

A lightweight aluminum crate, like those from IAE or Prattley, is a blessing if you manage multiple groups of sheep in different pastures. You can load it into a pickup or trailer and take the crate to the animals, rather than the other way around. This flexibility is invaluable for rotational grazing systems. The tradeoff is that they may be more susceptible to damage from a particularly rowdy ram.

On the other hand, a heavy-duty, galvanized steel crate is built like a tank. You can set it up in a permanent handling yard, and it will likely outlast you. It won’t budge, even with the biggest sheep. The downside is its lack of portability. If your central yard is a long walk from your furthest pasture, bringing the sheep to the crate can be a major undertaking. Your farm’s layout should be the primary driver of this decision.

Maintaining Your Weigh Crate for Longevity

A good weigh crate is an investment, and like any tool, it needs basic care to perform well for years. The most important job is the simplest: keep it clean. Manure is corrosive and can seize up hinges, latches, and springs. A quick scrape and hose-down after each use prevents long-term damage.

Pay attention to the moving parts. A shot of lubricating oil on pivot points and gate latches once or twice a year will keep everything operating smoothly. If you have electronic scales, the load bars are the heart of the system. Keep them free of mud and debris, as buildup can affect accuracy. Protect the electronic indicator from rain and physical damage; store it indoors when not in use.

Finally, think about storage. Leaving a crate out in the elements year-round will shorten its life, no matter what it’s made of. If you can, store it in a barn or under a lean-to. This simple step protects it from constant moisture and sun, preventing rust on steel components and preserving the life of any electronic parts. A well-maintained crate is a reliable partner in managing your flock.

Ultimately, the best weigh crate is the one you will actually use. Whether it’s a simple lamb weigher for tracking growth or a fully automated system, the goal is the same: to gather accurate information that helps you raise healthier, more productive sheep. Choose the tool that fits your system, your budget, and your back, and it will become one of the most valuable assets on your farm.