OVERVIEW of the SAMPLING, INITIAL AND SECONDARY DATA RECORDING ACTIVITIES

The objective of the above 3 activities is to record sex, weight, grade and price for a sufficient sample size of cattle. The weighing in particular is a labour-intensive operation (which may involve as much as 3 minutes per animal with up to 5 people being required). The conventional way of doing this is to use a combination of Market Organiser and Seller's manpower to organise and perform the weighing, which takes place usually before the trading starts. This technique also requires that the weighed animals are marked with a Temporary Recognition Number (TRN) so that after sale the buyer can be approached to find the price which he paid for that particular animal.

An alternative technique which should be very strongly considered is to encourage self-weighing - where the buyer and/or the seller weigh the animal themselves and declare the weight and price to the recorder; the recorder can then quickly also note the sex and grade. This technique eliminates the labour requirement for the weighing staff and also eliminates the TRN application.

It may be necessary to go through an interim phase of course in order to produce accurate and useable Market Price Information; once the buyers and sellers are persuaded that the data processing system is producing reliable and useful information, they should have a strong interest in contributing towards that system, by conducting self-weighing.

Note that most but not all of the 3 following sections on Sampling, Initial Recording and Secondary Recording would be nullified if this self-weighing concept is implemented. I very strongly recommend that the self-weighing concept is explored.