We have had an outbreak of overweight tickets given to cattle haulers. The trucks are being weighed on a gin scale which has not been certified in 3 years and which, as I understand it, cannot weigh by axle.

I keep wondering about these. First of all, given that most ranchers don't have scales in the pasture, how are the drivers to determine weight? How much is lost on a drive?

Secondly, how do I prosecute a ticket based on a scale that has not been certified? Shouldn't it be?

Thanks

For what it's worth, our L&W trooper takes our trucks to a certified scale. Don't think I would try a case if it wasn't.
I can't remember the % of loss usual for these loads, but I may be able to put my hands on the info. If so, I will forward it.

There is a fairly high amount of shrinkage on the trip out to the panhandle (or wherever). More so in the summer months than in the winter.
We had a guy with the same charge. We asked him to produce the weigh out ticket or at least the name of the feed lot that he delivered it to.
His complaint/defense was that they were weighing each axle and since the cattle could move around somewhat in the trailer then it wasn't/couldn't be accurate. Might be weighing some of the same cattle on each axle.
Of course his demise arose from his own testimony.
He told us (and the jury) that he was hauling X number of head and that they averaged Y pounds and that the scale had to be wrong. On the black board we multiplied x times y and it came out to more than the Trooper wrote him up for.
On a side note, you would be surprised at how close to accurate a rancher can be when estimating cattle weight by sight alone. Those buyers at the cattle auctions can get to w/in 5-10 lbs just by sight alone.

When you load cattle to ship, you have some idea of what you (hope) they weigh. Then the truck driver yells out to bring up X number of head to put in this compartment on the truck, and X number in the next compartment, etc. etc. I always assumed that this exercise was to try to get a legal amount of cattle onto the truck.

As a side note, we always weighed the loaded trucks on a grain elevator scale in town. I have no idea whether it was (or is) certified. That weight was what the purchase price amount was figured by.