emerging technologies - rice lake weighing systems · a magazine and reference tool for the...

A mAgAzine And ReFeRenCe TOOL FOR THe WeigHing indUSTRY / SUmmeR 2012 • iSSUe 1 • vOL. 9

SHROOMA step toward robotic picking

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIESA closer look at measurement and controlCover illustration is of a Mandlebrot set fractal. A tool to measure the immeasurable

RAISING MILLION DOLLAR BUCKSAt Antler Valley Whitetail Ranch

BEST IN SHOWAt the county fair

2 RiCe LAKe mAgAzine | www.ricelake.com

T H i S i S S U e

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RICE LAKE MAGAZINE • Summer 2012 • Issue 1 • Vol. 9

Inside

page 5 Emerging Technologies The illustration on the cover is a fractal page 6 What’s New Rice Lake presents the latest weighing equipment and technology page 8 Best

in Show grade A scale system incorporates ultrasound technology page 11 Do You Know

the Difference between a balance and a scale? page 12 Shroom CW-90 checkweighers

are the first step to automation page 14 Raising Million Dollar Bucks Takes gentle

care, good genes, and precise nutrition page 18 Turning Grain Dust into Gold

innovation improves safety at grain terminals page 22 ”Anytime... You Have a Good

Day” Rice Lake phone techs on the line page 24 Rice Lake Medical Scales Go

to the Mat Wisconsin Wrestling Hall-of-Famer Larry marchionda vouches for Rice Lake portable fitness

scale page 26 The 920i® and Android® Detect Caterpillar Abuse

Rice Lake’s 920i and the latest mobile technology

12

14

24

Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/

ricelakeweighingsystems

www.ricelake.com | RiCe LAKe mAgAzine 3

Editorial Staff

melanie Al Faraj, Technical Writer

Tamala Anderson, designer

Cheryl Aune, Literature manager

matt davis, marketing Specialist

Jessica de la Cruz, Writer

James Hanson, Web development Specialist

melissa Hjelle, marketing Specialist

megan Katcher, marketing Coordinator

nicole King, marking Coordinator

Katy madden, editor

Kelly musil, Catalog manager

Caleb Olson, Technical Writer, Reporter

Carrie Popple, Technical Writer

Pat Ranfranz, marketing director

Hannah Rechsteiner, designer

Tina Slayton, marketing Specialist

Stacy White, marketing Specialist

Kristina zengaffinen, Senior designer

T H i S i S S U e

John Hughes, vice President of Business development

WELCoME to ouR SuMMER ISSuE: FutuRE IN CoNtRoL®.

This issue of Rice Lake magazine features application stories about Rice Lake technology controlling processes at mills, plants, farms, and fairs. These Rice Lake end users are getting the control they need today—as well as ready solutions for expansion and development in the future.

Our equipment provides measurement and control methods to do things better—more refined weights, improved recipe formulation, time savings, data for analysis, reduced waste, and lower scrap. Rice Lake indicator/control systems continue to advance from fast, accurate weight information, to process control and data storage, to distributed control and beyond.

Another side of “Future in Control” is our own process of improvement. It is a joint venture between Rice Lake Weighing Systems and our network of dealers—the profes-sionals who provide on-site design expertise, installation, and fine-tuning of all control and measurement equipment.

John HughesVice President of Business Development

Wagon scales, track scales, beam scales, weigh buggies. When you need a part, we can generally find it.

Or we will make a new one.

800-472-6703www.ricelake.com

m.ricelake.com


T e C H TA L K

thE IMAGE oN thE CoVER IS A MANdELbRot SEt FRACtAL. A fractal is a geometric shape with patterns that re-peat at smaller and smaller scales. Fractals can be described by sets of numbers with an ever larger set of ever smaller numbers.

The word “fractal” was coined by Benoit Mandelbrot (1924–2010), a Polish-born mathematician. He became a pioneer in devising superior error-checking and data-compression algorithms that ultimately made possible reliable long-distance digital communication—and thus the Internet itself.

The fractal concept enabled scientists to measure previously immeasurable

Emerging TechnologiesA closer look at measurement and controlJim daggon, Rice Lake Senior engineer, emerging Technologies

A single quadratic equation contains infinitely detailed patterns that pose mathematical questions still unanswered today. Yet the algorithm to generate these fractals can be understood by anyone familiar with basic arithmetic.

Fractals are all around us in the natural world. A mountain range has an ever larger number of ever smaller hills. An archipelago has an ever larger number of ever smaller islands. A tree has an ever larger number of ever smaller limbs.

in biomedical systems, the blood vessels of the circulatory system, the diameter of airways in the lung, the dendrites of neurons, the edges of growth of bacterial colonies—all form fractals.

even the mushrooms you will read about in this magazine develop from mycelium, the mass of thread-like hyphae that at first glance appears chaotic, but upon closer observation can be seen to be an intricate, rational fractal.

objects—the coastline of the British Isles, the geometry of a lung, or a mush-room. As these ideas opened up, new discoveries led to the ability to predict previously unpredictable systems.

In the field of weight-based measure-ment and control, new concepts and new ways to apply weighing technology are opening up as well. As this issue shows, Rice Lake Weighing Systems is providing solutions to control increas-ingly complex systems.

We cannot predict the future. We are pre-dicting the future of control. As processes become more complex and previously uncontrollable systems come under con-trol, we will lead with solutions. ▪

(Clockwise) Order of fractals from large to small: mountains, trees, veins on a leaf, starfish, mycelium, outer space/inner space.

A fractal is a geometric shape with patterns that repeat at smaller and smaller scales.


W H AT ’ S n e W

RIcE LakE haS ExpandEd LabORaTORy ScOpE

E1 Weight kits and Sets now available

Weight kits and sets are available to order, and our laboratory is set up for recalibration of E1 weights. Weight kits are available from 1 mg to 5 kg and

many popular set sizes are available in 5-2-2-1 configuration. Custom sets can be purchased by combining individual weights to create the set

you need. All E1 weights are polished, one-piece stainless steel construction. ricelake.com/e1 ▪

a pERFEcT baLancE OF FEaTuRES and vaLuE

EQUIPOISE® compact balance

Ideal for classrooms, laboratories, and industrial applications, this seven-button balance allows quick access to 13 different units of measure, percentage, counting, and accumulat-ing. A detachable enclosed weighing chamber is included in capacities below 1000 grams. Equipoise can be used with the included AC adaptor or the on-board rechargeable battery providing up to 40 hours of continuous operation. RS-232 output is standard on each model. RS-232 cable is optional. ricelake.com/equipoise ▪

pRInTS muLTIpLE EaSy-TO-REad cOpIES

TicketPress® printer

TicketPress automatically adjusts to media thickness and prints multiple easy-to-read copies. The rugged steel enclosure protects internal mechanisms in tough industrial ap-plications from truck scale reporting to inventory control. TicketPress’ flexible communication parameters collect data from weight indicators, controllers, PCs, and other electronic devices. The weight-extraction mode and print button allow operators to control printing functions directly from TicketPress, making it an ideal solution for indicators mounted in remote locations. TicketPress comes standard with bidirectional dot ma-trix printing and supports data rates of up to 115,200 bits per second. ricelake.com/ticketpress ▪


W H AT ’ S n e W

buILT LIkE a TRuck ScaLE

nTEp certified RoughDeck® CS coil Scale

Heavy steel beams support half-inch thick smooth top-plate to take on load capacities up to 100,000 pounds. the same patented self-checking mounting system we

install in SuRVIVoR® truck Scales is also hard at work in the Roughdeck CS, eliminating excess movement and scale wear. ricelake.com/coilscale ▪

advancEd cOnTROL In mInIaTuRE

SCT-10 analog Signal conditioning Transmitter

the SCt-10 is dIN rail mountable within a cabinet or control panel to convert load cell signals to analog output, serial output, or specific network protocol. Unlike many other signal transmitters, the SCt-10 has a 0.3-inch weight display, with annunciators for unit and weighing status, and push buttons for zero, tare and setpoint entry, simplifying scale setup, calibration and operation. Includes error conditions, dual digital input/output, RS232/485. ricelake.com/sct10 ▪

SCT-20 analog or network Signal

the SCt-20 features dIN rail mounting and a 0.3-inch display indicating weight, configuration, calibration, and error conditions.

It converts weight to analog output or EtherNet/IP, DeviceNet or Profibus protocol. Two digital inputs, three digital outputs, and one

serial port with RS-232 and RS-485 provide total connectivity. Setup menu with push buttons. ricelake.com/sct20 ▪

by Jessica de la Cruz


O n L O C AT i O n

RICE LAKE WEIGhING SyStEMS hAS bEEN A pARt oF WISCoNSIN’S

bARRoN CouNty FAIR SINCE thE 1940’S, showcasing scales and weights from a canvas exhibit tent. Today you won’t

find Rice Lake in a booth, but instead, right where you might

expect a hard-working Rice Lake scale— the livestock barn.

Camped throughout the barns next to their animals are kids of all ages, all having spent the better part of a year preparing for the weekend’s events. Beef cattle, hogs, and sheep are all weighed in upon entry. From a starting weight taken in the spring, the new weight is used for calculating rate of gain, one factor considered in judging. Weighing several hundred animals is a task that requires plenty of volunteers and even more patience.

Not long ago, in an effort to modernize the fair experience, ultrasound evalua-tion was introduced to better determine the grade of the animal’s meat—a helpful

Livestock Judging Gets an upgrade

exhibitor Rachel madison of the Stanfold Sensations 4-H club poses with her prize-winning pig, Stanley.


O n L O C AT i O n

tool for judges, exhibitors, and buyers, but difficult with the existing weigh-in process. As fair officials looked for ways to streamline weigh-in time, they turned to Rice Lake Weighing Systems for assistance.

Mark Johnson Jr. and Joe Grell of Rice Lake Weighing Systems, met with Larry Jerome and several livestock commit-tee members. Before long, University of Wisconsin Livestock Professor Dr. Gary Onan, who performs livestock ultrasounds, and Dr. Doyle Wilson of Biotronics Inc., makers of ultrasound software and equipment, also joined the discussion. What followed was the development of Rice Lake’s first software to merge the technologies of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), weigh-ing, ultrasound, and meat classification. With all of these features linked to one main program, many are calling this the finest fair-scale system in Wisconsin—possibly in the United States.

An animal enters the scale and is identi-fied by an RFID ear tag. The operator waves the wand reader near the animal’s head while a computer with Rice Lake’s custom software pulls up the animal’s record, including the starting weight taken a few months earlier. As the animal boards Rice Lake’s livestock scale, the weight is read by a custom-programmed 920i® Indicator and shown overhead on a LaserLight™ Remote Display. Rice Lake’s software captures the weight and calculates rate of gain. Meanwhile, the animal exits the scale into the squeeze chute, where Dr. Onan performs a quick ultrasound. “I need the animal to hold still for at least a couple of seconds.” Rice Lake also re-engineered the squeeze chute with a custom swine lift to help keep the wiggliest pigs mo-tionless for the process. He snaps the picture and carefully circles the loin eye with his mouse, which the Biotronics software uses to calculate the loin-eye area. Speaking directly to the Biotronics software, Rice Lake’s program calculates the grade of the meat and percentage of fat-free lean, also recorded in the system. All of this unfolds on several overhead monitors for parents and

spectators to see. The anxious student is handed a printed ticket with all of this information, and animal and exhibitor are on their way.

Dr. Onan performs ultrasounds for fairs across the state and country, but he’s never seen a setup like this. “I can scan and measure and scan and measure and not be waiting around. I am never waiting for an animal. At other fairs, most of the time I’m standing around as much as I’m working and that’s not efficient.” Between the beef, lamb, and swine divisions, almost 200 animals were weighed in just over seven hours, cutting the time by nearly half while collecting more infor-mation more accurately.

“A lot of fairs are using electronic IDs, and some are linked to the weight, but in a lot of cases they’re just reading it and hand-recording. In the typical fair scenario, I capture images and then have a helper entering IDs and weight into an Excel sheet. I sit down after I’m done scanning, measure the images, and ex-port a text file into the spreadsheet. The electronic identification being linked to the weight and the scan data eliminates a huge source of error.”

Committee volunteers used to spend hours crunching numbers and compiling data. With all of the information in one program, printing out a spreadsheet for the weekend’s auction is a few clicks away. Auction-goers have information in hand for each animal including live rank, rate of gain, loin-eye area, back-fat depth, percentage fat-free lean, and quality grade: select, choice, or prime.

The equipment upgrade allows for safer, more humane treatment of the livestock, an increasing industry-wide concern. The volunteers’ jobs have gotten easier too. Having the results during the fair gives students more recognition for their work, making for a better exhibiting experience.

Swine Co-Superintendent Steve Sirek volunteers his time at the livestock exhibits, and remembers how things were not so long ago; a judge would make a decision about the animal at the live show. After the fair, that deci-sion would be evaluated when the cut

meat was inspected. Sometimes the two evaluations would match, sometimes they wouldn’t. That isn’t a problem now that ultrasound is being used.

Steve explains that this advancement is also helpful in the realm of biosecurity. In the past, kids were brought into the locker plants after the fair to view the carcasses, sometimes handling them. Now, that step isn’t necessary.

“This is the way the industry is going,” Steve adds. “When a farmer sells fifty pigs to market, they get scanned, and he gets paid based on the results of that scan.”

Steve talks about the benefits for the exhibitors. “In terms of the judging, the impact is for the kids. They have a lot more information about their animals after we’ve weighed and scanned them and printed all this out. They have bet-ter information about deciding which

dr. gary Onan, University of Wisconsin livestock professor, uses ultrasound technology to help measure loin-eye area, quality, and percentage of fat-free lean.

Continued on page 10


animal they want to have the judge rank. If they bring a couple of animals, they pick the one they think is the best.”

Dr. Onan understands the benefits of ultrasound beyond the fair. “One of the biggest single problems in the beef industry today is non-uniformity of product. There is a lot of variation, much more so than in the hog industry; little cattle and big cattle, well-muscled cattle and poorly muscled cattle. By using ultrasound to sort at marketing time you can decrease that variability a bit, which saves money through the whole marketing chain.”

The impact is huge for breeders, too. “Ultrasound has been done in the swine industry since the late 1970s. In the past ten years or so, the cattle industry has grabbed this technology and run with it. Many of the top breed organizations now do genetic evaluations on bulls and heifers using ultrasound scans.” Dr. Onan describes a flat line of progress during the genetic-based assessment of the ’70s and ’80s, and a major upward trend after ultrasound came into use. “We’ve seen tremendous improvement in carcass merit for those breeds now.”

Livestock committee member Larry Jerome, whose family founded Jennie-O Turkey Store, was instrumental in bringing Rice Lake on board. He jokes, “My life is a 4-H project.” But in all seriousness, the value to him is teaching. “It helps the student and parents under-stand how they ended up where they ended up, and what they need to do to make their animal more viable. This is the standard that is basically being ad-opted by the major industries, and we’re just trying to become more cutting edge. We were fortunate to find a business like Rice Lake Weighing Systems who has that same type of vision. It’s allowed us to do things that normally a lot of other fairs couldn’t.” Such as correctly selecting “Best of Show.” ▪

O n L O C AT i O n

Best in ShowContinued from page 9

PERFECTBALANCEof features and value

Equipoise® balances are ideal for classrooms, laboratories, and industrial applications. Quick access to 13 different units of measure, percentage, counting and accumulating. A detachable enclosed weighing chamber is included in capacities below 1000 grams. Equipoise can be used with included AC adaptor or on-board rechargeable battery providing up to 40 hours continuous operation. RS-232 output is standard on each model. (RS-232 cable is optional.)

For more information go to ricelake.com/equipoise


m.ricelake.com

Ann Crowley, Rice Lake product manager


T e C H TA L K

Guidelines to check a balance or scale.

Calibration, checking, testing, or verifying a scale is different from calibration with adjustment. Calibration verifies correct performance of the balance or scale.

First, power up and exercise the platform. do this by applying light pressure with your hand on the platform or on a larger scale by walking around the corners.

Then complete the following tests:

1. Check for repeatability by placing a weight (near or at capacity) 10 times in the center of the platform.

2. Check for sensitivity or discrimination test (value of a division) by applying a check weight (the value of a scale division) at no load, half capacity, and full capacity.

3. Complete a build-up test by applying weights (or product) to the platform to cover 10 different weigh points. Also complete a decreasing-load test.

4. Check for off-center loading (shift test) by placing a weight equal to 1/4 to 1/3 capacity in the center of each platform quadrant.

5. Check to make sure the platform is within tolerance error. This is set by the company or laboratory for non-legal-for-trade uses, or refer to Handbook 44 or other government regulations for guidelines.

6. Complete uncertainty of measurement calculation if required.

Important notes:

Weight tolerances (when used without correction) should not exceed 1/3 of the smallest tolerance applied.

verify that all documentation uses the correct symbols for unit values. For exam-ple “kg” is written in lower case (not Kg).

Calibrating with adjustment is different from checking or testing a scale. Use manufacturers’ guidelines to calibrate and adjust a balance or scale.

For example:

1. Look at the scale and remove any debris that would interfere with the weighing process and clear the platform.

2. exercise the platform.

3. Turn off auto-zero tracking.

4. Follow the calibration procedure of the device. The appropriate size and class of weight should be used for calibra-tion. The calibration procedure will include zero check/adjustment and calibration with weights.

5. during calibration, weights should be applied to the center of the platform.

For calibrations completed in-house, a pro-cedure should be written specifying the correct weights to be used in calibration.

Some customers require “as found” and “as left” values. For this calibration an addi-tional step is needed to check the current weight value before calibration. ▪

Reference-Guidelines on the Calibration of Non-Automatic Weighing Instruments, EURAMET/cg-18-v.02-NIST Handbook 44

do you know the differencebetween a balance and a scale?by Ann Crowley, Rice Lake product manager

According to Wikipedia “A weighing scale (usually just ‘scales’ in UK and Australian English, ‘weighing machine’ in South-Asian English, and ‘scale’ in U.S. English) is a measuring instrument for determining the weight or mass of an object.A balance compares the torque on the arm due to the sample weight to the torque on the arm due to a standard reference weight using a horizontal lever. Balances are also different from scales in that a balance measures mass (or more specifically gravitational mass), whereas a scale measures weight (or more specifically either the tension or compression force of constraint provided by the scale).”Originally balances were equal-arm balances where a weight was put on one side and a product was put on the other side. There was a comparison of mass between the two. Today, many balances are used as scales to measure the weight of a product.Today’s terminology would define a bal-ance as a scale with a higher resolution. Balances have features including mass unit conversion, counting, percentage, limit functions for checkweighing, or specific-gravity weighing, whereas scales have gross, tare, and net indications, printing, and units-of-measure conversion.A scale normally consists of a load cell base (or multiple load cell base) and a display, A/D and CPU processor. The displayed resolution is normally 5000 graduations (50 lb × 0.01 lb, for example) for Legal-for-Trade applications (NTEP) or 10,000 graduations for non-legal-for-trade applications (50 lb × 0.005 lb). Scales normally do not specify repeat-ability. However, NTEP Certified scales are tested for repeatability and have a tolerance of 1/10 of 1% of scale capacity.A balance may have a load cell, force restoration, or tuning-fork weigh-ing mechanism, a display, processor, and display graduations in excess of 100,000. The primary unit of measure for most balances is grams. An example

of 100,000 displayed graduations would be 100 g × 0.001 g. Balances normally have repeatability specifications of one displayed graduation.Both the scale and the balance could be used to weigh a product. Balances have limited capacity and size in order to maintain high display graduations. ▪


O n L O C AT i O n

WhItECRESt MuShRooMS Ltd. FARM IN RuRAL putNAM, oNtARIo, hAS oNE oF thE MoSt hIGh-tECh MuShRooM pLANtS IN thE WoRLd —producing two million pounds of brown mushrooms a year. Nevertheless, people still do the picking. It takes several months’ experience and a practiced eye to know when to pick a button Crimini and when to let it mature to a steak-size Portobello. Per-fectly ripe mushrooms vary from small buttons to large caps.

Murray and Chantelle Good purchased the farm in 2001. In June of 2010, lightning struck the nursery building, and it burned to the foundation. Murray turned the loss into an opportunity—by building a bigger, better nursery. This time around, Murray wanted a completely automated system that one day would produce controlled, traced mushrooms not touched by human hands between picking and purchase. The less mushrooms are touched the

better—for both mushroom and bottom line. To Murray, employing the system of 22 CW-90 checkweighers is a major step in reducing the handling of mushrooms.

“Mushrooms are fungi, but they are com-monly thought of as a vegetable—so we’re competing with other vegetables,” Murray explains. “Our price is high in comparison because our cost of production is high—50 percent of our total expense is labor. We want to get that down to 25 percent. With robotic-picking, we can pick twenty-four hours a day. Every hour a mushroom grows four percent, so in a day it doubles in size. If we’re picking twenty-four hours a day we’re getting more efficiency out of our beds.”

Mushrooms are the only “vegetable” that makes Vitamin D itself. “We can enhance that with UV light. We also make a mushroom powder that com-panies use to enhance soups, sauces, yogurt, and bread. Mushrooms are a good source of umami, so instead of adding salt, mushroom powder can be added for a savory flavor.”

CW-90 Checkweighers are the first step to automation

“these CW-90s are bullet-proof. We’ve had no problems with them

at all. Let’s say they’re saving us 10 percent a year; that’s

$200, 000 we’re not giving away.”

Murray Good, Whitecrest Mushrooms Ltd


O n L O C AT i O n

Umami is one of the five basic tastes together with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Umami is a loanword from the Japanese word meaning “pleasant savory taste.” The human tongue has receptors for L-gluta-mate, which is the source of umami flavor. As such, scientists consider umami distinct from saltiness. For a long time, scientists debated whether umami was indeed a basic taste, but in 1985, at the first Umami International Symposium in Hawaii, the term umami was officially recognized as the scientific term to describe the taste of glutamates and nucleotides. Now it is widely accepted as the fifth basic taste.

“The Rice Lake system fits right into our plan to progress to robotic-picking. We’re working on it with the University of Western Ontario’s engineering department to get that developed over the next four

years. The technology is there. We already have video recognition, color recognition, temperature recognition, and suction cups to pull off the mushrooms. We just have to put it all together.”

The first step to robotic-picking is the CW-90 system designed and installed by Carlisle Technology. Whitecrest Mush-rooms’ 22 CW-90s are wirelessly connect-ed to the host and mounted on carts that roll along the aisles and can be elevated so the picker has access to all seven tiers of mushroom beds. “Most of these checkweighing systems are looking for overweight containers, to eliminate giving away product. There was lots of custom-ization on the CW-90. We got a lot of good attention from Ian.” Ian Scott is the Rice Lake Regional Director in Toronto.

Whitecrest’s Matthew Leader gives public tours for mushroom-lovers. “We grow Crimini to Portobello—brown Agaricus mushrooms. The customer base wants small or big—nothing in-between. We pick button mushrooms with tight caps. Some we leave a couple of days, and they become baby Portobellos and larger Portobellos. We now have huge sales of open caps. If we don’t come into a growing room for a weekend, we have some that grow to seven or eight inches. As they grow larger, the fla-vor becomes more mature and richer. We package those and people swoop them up.

“As soon as the pickers weigh a box and a label is printed, it sends a signal to the server upstairs so I can see the labels as they are printed. The system tracks give-away—we can see what the actual weight is and what it is set for. With the weighing being done in the grow rooms, we save pack room time, and it doesn’t have to be touched again. We would like to eliminate the packing room. That’s what we’re going for. The traceability is a bonus. Our retailers are not demanding it, but it’s coming, and we’re ready for it.”

Rice Lake’s CW-90 checkweigher is designed to speed up the weighing pro-cess and reduce production downtime, both critical factors to any company’s bottom line. Ease of use, ability to col-lect real-time data with the optional wireless LAN card, and stainless steel construction make the CW-90 the equipment of choice for enterprises like Whitecrest Mushrooms.

Some of the unique aspects of this CW-90 application are that it directly drives the printer, printing a 2D barcode with trace-ability information (station, picker, lot code, product code, and best-before date). Each transaction is sent wirelessly from the CW-90 to Carlisle’s Symphony™ Plant Productivity Suite. It coordinates all the CW-90 stations, ensuring that they have the latest product information (individual product set points, tare weights, and best-before dates). The label is applied to the mushroom tray and is scanned at Carlisle’s iCap station where the trays are packed into boxes, providing full traceability from the box back to the picker and the grow room. Whitecrest uses the reports from Symphony to keep track of inventory, pro-duction, and to assess picker productivity, which they use for paying their pickers and managing labor costs.

Ian sells the CW-90 with great confi-dence. “The CW-90 is the most feature-driven checkweigher on the market. It’s practically indestructible. Connectivity is the name of the game, and the CW-90 has more connectivity options than any checkweigher in the industry.” ▪

Photos by Hannah Rechsteiner, Rice Lake design specialist.

Top: murray good, Whitecrest mushrooms, LTd.

Bottom: in 2010 a lightning fire destroyed the growing barn. murray good rebuilt with a plan to move toward the world’s first robotic mushroom-pickers. 22 CW-90s are wirelessly connected to the host and mounted on carts that roll along the aisles and can be elevated so the picker has access to all seven tiers of mushroom beds.

The Calmes’ daughters named this doe fawn “Piper.” When visitors enter the enclosure she is the first to sniff and trot up to nibble on shirttails.

Opposite page: These antlers are resin replicas cast from the four-year shed of a breeder buck Kevin raised and sold. The owner keeps the original antlers.


LASt dECEMbER, thE booNE & CRoCKEtt CLub pubLIShEd A PHoTo oN THEIR Trophy WaTCh WEb pAGE oF A bREEdER buCK SAId to bE WoRth $1 MILLIoN. In a cyber-second, the photo spread through hunting sites and blogs, and all were amazed at the antlers scien-tific breeding and nutrition could produce—but a deer hunter is unlikely to see a buck like that in the wild.

In the natural world, gene pools of whitetail deer from far and wide have intermixed with indigenous populations resulting in tremendous genetic variation. Consequently, there is a wide variety of antlers from spike bucks and typicals, to the monstrous non-typical bucks of hunters’ dreams.

That is the dream Kevin and Tracy Calmes are making a reality at Antler Valley Whitetail Ranch outside Kaukauna, Wisconsin. The husband-and-wife team started raising deer in 1999. They are creating a herd of super deer, selecting whitetail bloodlines they are hoping will create bucks with trophy antlers.

Kevin explains, “What we can do here, that you can’t do in the wild, is breed a mother that is throwing a big typical [rack] to a buck who has a heavy, massive rack. When a doe comes into heat in the wild, she is usually sur-rounded by four or five bucks. She needs to choose the best buck. While the biggest buck is busy fighting off other bucks, another buck will come in and breed her. So it’s very rare that you get a good genetic line in the wild.”

The Antler Valley Whitetail Ranch is a trophy in itself. With the help of the Straight Line Fencing Company, they designed and built an amazing fencing

O n L O C AT i O n

Continued on page 16


O n L O C AT i O n

system. There are 105 gates throughout, plus two miles of exterior fencing. The maze of alleyways, grassy paddocks, and pasture is phenomenally efficient and safe with double gates designed to turn alleyways into sorting and holding pens. Deer are calmly funneled through al-leyways into the indoor handling facility. There are no 90-degree corners where deer could feel trapped. The walls are lined with smooth sheeting. At the end, the deer enter a squeeze chute where Kevin, veterinarians, and artificial-insemination technicians can treat each deer with minimal distress to the animal.

The deer are gently handled from the moment they are pulled from the doe to be bottle-fed. Kevin says that even though this is a business, it is also very much like raising pets. A lot of love and compassion go into raising these beautiful animals. Kevin and Tracy love their work. “They become a part of your family. Bottle-feeding is a lot of work, but it’s worth all of the effort because we enjoy the benefits that come from it. I don’t want to sell a doe that has an ex-ceptional pedigree, and therefore is high in value, only to have it hit the fence because it is afraid of people. We love that we can open a gate and let them walk right out. They’re not bouncing off

the fence, which is good, because they can easily break their neck. Their health and well-being is our main concern.”

The complex includes a feed building where water in the stainless steel kitchen is thermostatically controlled for mixing formula. Kevin knows genetics and nu-trition, nature and nurture, go hand-in-hand. “Antler development is extremely important. Therefore, the nutrition that the deer takes in during the growth season is a main concern for us.”

Kevin says he can only get out of each deer what their potential is, “By giving the correct balanced nutrition, along with bottle-feeding, we are well on our way to achieving our goals.”

Wild whitetail deer forage a buffet of food varieties: acorns, fruit, legumes, shoots, leaves, flowers, cacti, mush-rooms, cultivated crops such as corn, beans, and hay, and even red sumac that is poisonous to humans. They have been known to opportunistically feed on field mice, nesting songbirds, and birds trapped in mist nets. The deer on the Antler Valley Whitetail Ranch graze on a mixture of chicory, clover, and alfalfa, with a swath of timothy down the middle of the pens.

Kevin says wild deer have a hard search for food in the winter. “During a frost, deer will dig down to get to vegetation,

but they might burn more calories than they’re getting so their metabolism changes. That doesn’t happen with these deer because they always have food. Although right now, since it’s breeding season, the buck has stopped eating. When they have breeding on their mind they seldom eat.”

Beyond where the feed is mixed, an unmarked door opens into Kevin’s office. Magnificent trophy mounts dominate the walls, and Kevin tells a great story about every one. Two of the most impressive mounts, with massive antlers, are actually replicas of the sheds of foundation bucks he uses for artificial insemination.

“This four-year-old breeder buck (pictured on previous page) was born on our farm and has since been sold. The actual antlers stay with his new owner.” Kevin explains that the replica antlers are cast from the actual antlers and mounted on a form. The form is covered with the cape of another deer that may have been shot and the hunter didn’t want the cape, or one that may have died on a breeding farm. “You can’t get a cape that is big enough in the wild. The base of these antlers is much bigger than [the antler opening] on a wild cape.”

There are 12 fenced grassy paddocks outside. As soon as Kevin opens the double steel gates, the fawns come trot-ting, sniffing, and are soon sucking on shirtsleeves and coattails.

“We pull the females away from the does after two days, so they still get the colos-trum.” Colostrum is the milk produced just prior to giving birth that contains an-tibodies, as well as being lower in fat and higher in protein than milk produced later on. Newborn fawns have small digestive systems, and colostrum delivers nutri-ents in a concentrated low-volume form. “Then we bottle-feed them three times a day for two months and wean them slowly. They stay inside in smaller pens for the first ten days after birth. Then we carry them outside to one of these 30- by 50-foot pens.”

Tracy Calmes, chief bottle-feeder who can hold two bottles in each hand un-less a fawn butts one out of her grasp,

Raising Million Dollar BucksContinued from page 15

“one of the benefits of an automated system

is getting exactly the same amount of ingredients

in every batch you mix.”

Kevin Calmes, owner of Antler Valley Whitetail Ranch

O n L O C AT i O n

The large display of the 920i® allows Kevin and Tracy to completely set up and configure the system through the front panel. The deer feed system allows up to 250 feed formulas consisting of up to 10 ingredients each. The system interfaces with two scales, a 24 channel diO card, and relay rack to control and automate feeding.

greg Hardy, of CCS Systems, inc., Little Chute, Wisconsin, developed the batching system.

Kevin demonstrates the way to rattle antlers. Rattle, wait, then rattle again to simulate the sound of two bucks fighting over a doe— charging, backing-off, and charging again.

adds, “We leave the buck fawns on the moms. We want them to be wild and not socialized with humans too much. That can make for a dangerous situation when the bucks develop antlers and the rut season comes around. They can get pretty aggressive.” The gate system allows Tracy to bring a few fawns into a holding area until all of them have been fed and returned to the nursery pen.

Kevin describes the importance of mixing the feed precisely once the fawns advance beyond bottle-feeding. “Here is what usually happens; some people will have a 15-ton bunker outside, and they will call their feed mill and ask for 300 pounds of oats, 200 pounds of soybeans, 700 pounds of corn, and 250 pounds of black oil sunflower seeds in a mix, and get 10 tons of that mixture. They put it in a truck and drive for half an hour to deliver it and then auger it into the bunker. It may have 30% fiber, 5.5% fat, and 32% protein. It’s all in there, but it sifts several times. Then they add molasses and feed their deer. But the particular ration the deer are being fed that day might actually be 30% protein and 2% fat. If this is during antler development, the deer might not be get-ting enough of something and too much of something else until that mix is gone.”

That is why Kevin sat down with ADM Feed of Madison, Wisconsin, and built two pellets—a fiber pellet and a protein pellet. He worked with their nutritionists to get the right fat level, fiber content, and chelated vitamins. “Chelated vitamins are absorbed more completely and don’t go straight through the animals without breaking down. It’s not a secret recipe. If you do your homework and know what you want, ADM can build it.”

Kevin believes his 920i® feed-mixing and batching system is the only auto-mated system from New York to Texas that exists in the deer business. “This is the first one that I know of. One of the benefits of an automated system is getting exactly the same amount of ingredients in each batch you mix. If I’m not available to mix on a particular day, I can have Tracy mix, and I know there is no alteration in the nutrition the deer are receiving.

“We hand feed every day. The oil and molasses are added last. We go up to the 920i and we have four or five batch op-tions that we can choose from. We have a thousand-pound batch, a medicated batch, and I can add anything to that batch such as antibiotics. Then we mix in the oil and molasses to get coverage so the mix doesn’t dry out. The molasses covers the bitter taste of the minerals and makes it palatable so they’ll eat it.”

Beyond the perimeter fence, there are patches of torn-up sod. “A wild deer has been here. That patch is where he displayed domi-nance. With 52 does in heat, we’re bound to attract atten-tion. One year a wild buck stayed here three days.”

Kevin points out a two-year-old buck that has a 285-inch rack this year. “At two, that’s incredible. He’s probably my best buck. I do not plan to sell yearling bucks or buck fawns from him because you never know. You might be giving your best animal away. I sell hunting preserve bucks and breeding bucks, doe fawns, and sometimes bred does.”

There is no doubt that Kevin and Tracy Calmes at Antler Valley Whitetail Ranch understand the importance of nutrition when it comes to raising whitetail deer. They make it a priority to continue re-searching and learning. Their newfound partnership with Rice Lake is one of the reasons a million-dollar buck could be in their future. ▪


On LOCATiOn

GRAIN FIELdS IN EAStERN ILLINoIS ANd WISCoNSIN StREtCh AS FAR AS thE hoRIZoN in all directions. Tower-ing clusters of bins and elevators pinpoint the super-sized grain facilities at rail stops and small towns. All is quiet—until har-vest when the dust hits the wind.

For years, grain terminal operators have invested in safety equipment and training to protect their personnel and property from combustion caused by flying fibers or “flyings,” more com-monly known as dust. Of all types of dust explosions, those associated with grain dust are the most common and the most dangerous. Any time grain is moved, processed, or stored, poten-tially combustible dust is generated and suspended in the air. In confined spaces like elevators and dryers, ignition sources are always present.

Even outdoors, grain dust creates serious air pollution. When fleets of hopper-bottom semi-trailers are unloading 1,200 bushels of grain every 11 minutes, day and night, clouds of dust can envelop the scale house and equipment and coat drivers’ throats. Dust control is also a concern because the area around grain-handling facilities must meet air-quality standards mandated by state and federal guidelines.

One of the issues encountered when con-fining dust in grain-handling applications is the effect confinement devices can have on weighing equipment. Many confine-ment systems directly contact weigh hop-pers, truck scales, conveyor scales, and Continued on page 20

bagging scales. This contact can increase potential errors with weighing-system accuracy if implemented improperly.

Jay Garnhart, Cream City Scale LLC, wanted to integrate the Lowry Manu-facturing Company dust-collection system with Rice Lake SURVIVOR® grain-dump scales. The Lowry system is inserted into the underground pit. There, it pulls the proper volume of air from the pit to capture particles and return them to the grain stream.

Jay says, “I call it a ‘sock.’ It’s a mesh lin-ing that fits above the hopper and below the scale.” The ingenious part is the way the sock is attached to the scale. “There is enough play so the load cells can be quickly accessed, and the sock won’t affect the accuracy of the scale.” Before the idea developed, scale techs attached the two systems in a way that made weighing components like load cells inaccessible—unless separated.

The sock fits like a glove. The interface of the sock to the hopper is airtight, capturing grain dust along the entire stream from hopper to pit. The sock also prevents fugitive dust from building up on bearings, motors, and other periph-eral equipment near the grain-handling system. Cleaner, safer, more efficient.

At the Gensler Grain Farm operation near Rochelle, Illinois, efficiency is a top concern. For farmers working overtime to bring in their crops, safer and more

vita Builders, Fall River, Wisconsin, did the mill work for S & S grain mill. They created the building plan, positioned the dump pits, did the concrete work, and engineered, fabricated, and installed the equipment, bins, and steel enclosures. Ryan garnhart, Jay’s son, states unequivocally, “vita Builders was the backbone of the operation.”

glenn Andler, vita Builders general manager, says, “This is the first time we did one like this and i have not seen an-other one like it. Our design team had to make sure that everything matched from the Lowry dump pits to the Rice Lake scale deck. There was not a lot of margin for error. Hats off to our people getting that to work, especially Jeff Stancer who headed this up.”

TuRnInG GRaIn duST InTO

Innovation improves safety at grain terminals with SuRvIvOR® grain-dump truck scales

Single grain-dump at Gensler Farms


O n L O C AT i O n

From left: Jim gensler, owner/operator of gensler grain Farm with Jay and his son Ryan garnhart, Cream City Scale, LLC, at the single-pit SURvivOR OTR with custom 23 ft. middle section.

companies will not accept overloaded containers. Jay Garnhart explains the advantage, “With this overload system design, drivers can drop excess weight loaded into the container back into the grain dump without leaving the scale. Can you imagine the time that saves? Instead of leaving the scale to dump the excess and returning to the scale to be re-weighed, they can stay on the scale in their cab, re-weigh, and go. The SURVI-VOR is their giant checkweigher!”

Jim Gensler agrees, “When we’re loading containers for ships, they have to be exact, or they will be rejected—there is no wiggle room.”

S&S Grain Farm near Madison, Wis-consin, has a gleaming new grain facility with a dual-dump SURVIVOR OTR truck scale, installed by Cream City

Turning Grain Dust into GoldContinued from page 18

Scale. With two 6- by 7-foot openings, each pit is lined with finely tailored socks, thanks to Jay’s innovation.

Dick Schroeder, proprietor, reports, “It’s smooth. We just pull on, go in the scale room, punch a ticket, come out, and open everything up. We can unload 8,000 bushels an hour. It takes 9 to 11 minutes from the time we punch in to the time we punch the scale out to run 1,200 bushels off a truck. We’ve hauled over a 1000 loads over it. We can leave here at 79,980 [pounds] not counting a driver, go to the DOT scale, and be right on. We do load right at 80,000, so it’s nice to know for sure. You don’t have to guess.”▪

expedient unloading of corn, soybeans, and other products represents a signifi-cant savings in time, equipment, and expense. Jim Gensler, of Gensler Grain Farm, reports that the combination of the SURVIVOR® OTR single-pit grain-dump truck scale and Lowry dust-collection equipment has enabled him to operate with one less semi-truck and hire one less driver each season. Drivers can fully open the gates on their trailers, and the system takes the grain away as fast as they can unload it.

Jim also realized another advantage with this system. He installed overhead bins to fill shipping containers on the truck while the truck is on the scale. Properly loading the containers is essential because freight

The NTEP Certified RoughDeck® CS Coil Scale features strength and stability. The same patented mounting system we install in SURVIVOR® Truck Scales is also hard at work in the RoughDeck CS, eliminating excess movement and scale wear. Heavy steel beams support half-inch thick smooth top-plate to take on load capacities of 40, 60, and 80,000 pounds. Resulting in less maintenance and longer service life.

Go to ricelake.com/coilscale for more information.


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“Anytime...you have a good day”ouR phoNE tEChS hANdLE About 1,500 pLuS CALLS pER WEEK. If you are one of those callers, we thought you would like to see from where that calm and wise voice is coming.

It’s 6 p.m., and Scott of tech support has a caller who is setting up a safe area and has questions about barriers and what he can do in the non-safe area. “You could use one circuit for all, as long as they are on their own network. Just keep all the scales on one breaker and it will be fine.Anytime... you have a good day.”

It’s 6:30 a.m., and a lull between Greg’s 85 calls allows him enough time to describe a recent dilemma. “The new non-marking tires on forklifts cause a lot of problems. They’ll run through a warehouse that has an epoxy finish and come back to drop the load on the floor scale. They’ve developed a large enough static charge on the floor scale that it will discharge the base. All that energy has to go somewhere so it follows the cable back to the indicator.” Greg reassured the caller that the damage is most likely not permanent, defaults the printer, and gets it working again.

Now when you call us you can put a face to the voice. ▪

Rice Lake’s selection of indicator/controllers includes the right tool for every job.

From simple weighing applications to controlling entire processing plants—we have the equipment and technology to get it done. Rice Lake’s famous customer service and technical support makes even complex applications simple.

Please visit ricelake.com/indicators for more information about Rice Lake weighing instrumentation.


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m e d i C A L S C A L e S

“I want the company to be customer-friendly and stand behind their products. I want them to be easy to work with.

And I want delivery within a business week.”Larry marchionda, retired wrestling coach

and founder of the World class Wrestling Enterprises website

Rice Lake medical Scales go to the matWhEN 1983 WISCoNSIN WREStLING hALL-oF-FAMER, LARRy MARChIoNdA REtIREd, hIS phoNE KEpt oN WoRKING. His former wrestlers (now coaches and teachers themselves) would call, saying, “Hey, Coach, where can I buy those…” about some piece of equipment that Larry could vouch for.

“So I started a little website.” That is Larry’s definition of a widely respected source of wrestling equipment, technique, and information—World Class Wrestling Enterpris-es, LLC (wcwusa.com). He carefully chose manufacturers, and Rice Lake Weighing Systems is proud to be one of Larry’s picks.

Larry has a long and personal history with scales. He remembers the 1950s when wrestlers weighed on portable beam scales. “Then it was the doctor’s-office-style bal-ance beam.” Larry says some schools were notorious for having “fixed scales.” “They filed the notches on the beam.” Weighing technology today will not allow cheating. In fact, high-resolution electronic scales will capture fractions of ounces as well as body composition information.

Larry thinks about his own reputation as well as the reputations of the manufacturers he chooses to represent. “People like me and trust me, and I don’t want that to change. And I don’t want phone calls from disappointed people.” Today, Larry is the wrestling administrator at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh campus.

There are only five manufacturers on Larry’s World Class Wrestling Enterprises site. If Larry tries a manufacturer and gets complaints, the company is eliminated. “I want the company to be customer-friendly and stand behind their products. I want them to be easy to work with. And I want delivery within a business week. The thing I like most about Rice Lake is they continue looking at how to improve their product. I know when a new version is available, it’s improved.”

Friend and colleague Rich “Woody” Carlson is the supervisor of the Wisconsin Inter-scholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) State Wrestling Tournament and has first-hand experience on the mat. When he was 12 years old, Rich wrestled in middle school and later in high school, though he didn’t make the team in college. Rich went on to become a wrestling official, starting with being a “mat-runner” at tournaments, tapping the referee on the shoulder when time ran out. Today, he manages the Wisconsin state and individual tournaments.

Wrestling has changed since the days Rich weighed in. “Today, wrestling is much more about technique. You still have the same basic holds that were developed hundreds of years ago. You still need a good take down, a good break down, and a good pinning hold, but there are more styles of wrestling and new holds have been developed for certain body types.

“Kids of any size or weight can become talented wrestlers. I was tall and thin but I wrestled at the lowest weight. I needed to use my long arms and legs to get leverage, rather than relying on upper-body strength.”

Larry marchionda, Wisconsin Wrestling Hall-of-Famer


m e d i C A L S C A L e S

Rice Lake Weighing Systems supplies Legal-for-Trade portable fitness scales for the state wrestling tournaments, and Rich says they are always accurate. “We have to put them on hard floors and sometimes carpet. They’re very con-venient to move and durable, and they save a lot of conflict because they all agree with each other.” That is important because if a wrestler does not “make weight,” he is allowed to step on all the scales present. If any one of the scales indicates a qualifying weight, that wres-tler has made his weight class.

The Rice Lake 140-10-7N Portable Fitness Scale used at the wrestling tournaments is an NTEP Certified Legal-

for-Trade scale that provides the highest possible accuracy. It has a 600 lb. capacity even Sumo wrestlers won’t challenge—even though it weighs only 20 lbs. ▪

Rich “Woody” Carlson is the supervisor of the WiAA

State Wrestling Tournament.

Rice Lake 140-10-7n Portable Fitness Scale


O n L O C AT i O n

The 920i® and android® detect caterpillar abuse by Caleb Olson

MINING IS A touGh INduStRy. dAy IN ANd dAy out, thE GoAL IS to MoVE AS MuCh MAtERIAL AS poSSIbLE. This is demanding on min-ers and equipment alike, both of which are prone to frequent breakdowns. For Ferreyros, a Peruvian company supplying Caterpillar® trucks to local mines, equip-ment failure can lead to enormous war-ranty costs. They needed to make sure any warranty claims are valid and not due to trucks being loaded over capacity, a tempting practice for mine operators.

Ferreyros contacted Scale International Service S.A.C. (SISSAC) in Lima, where Jaime Perez came up with a solution: use two axle scales, Rice Lake’s 920i® indicator, and an Android™ smartphone to document truck weighments. The open architecture of Android’s operating system would make the app develop-

ment possible. By mounting the 920i in a Pelican™ case, the entire system would be portable and durable.

SISSAC developed the custom app to track all the needed information: truck ID number, gas tank level, engine RPMs at the time of weighing, number of front-loader scoops used to fill the truck, and weight on the onboard weighing instrument. This data is manually entered into the app’s prompts as the truck is parked on the axle scale. Because the indicator and phone are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, live weighments from the 920i are captured by the app and attached to the truck’s ID.

This offered the ultimate portable, self-contained weighing system. SISSAC can transport the equipment to different sites to take instant weighments, ensuring trucks at any location are not being mis-treated. Once back at the office, all data is

1.The weighing system is set up and on standby for vehicles.

2. A truck enters the weighing station and parks on the axle scale. its front axle is weighed and information is entered in the application.

3. The 920i obtains the weight, which is wirelessly captured and saved in the smartphone.

4. The rear axle is then weighed.

5. Later, the information is transferred from the smartphone to a PC to produce a final report that analyzes the weight.

transferred from the app to a PC where a report is generated, analyzing the weights.

With the increasing functionality of tab-lets, SISSAC programmed their app to be scalable to larger screens. Now, they can use their original Motorola Milestone™ or the new kid in the office—a Samsung Galaxy Tab™ with a larger touchscreen for easier data entry.

SISSAC is currently working on more improvements to be released in the app’s second phase. The future version will automatically capture all data from the truck’s computer to their Android device through the computer’s serial output.

Rice Lake’s 920i and the latest mobile technology—a combination that’s des-tined to hit pay dirt! ▪

TicketPress® prints multiple clear copies by automatically adjusting to media thickness. The steel enclosure is designed for industrial applications from truck scale reporting to inventory control. Flexible communication parameters collect data from weight indicators, controllers, PCs, and other electronic devices. Operators control printing functions directly from TicketPress—an ideal solution for remote locations.

Standard Features

• Multi-strike, high-speed printing, 200 characters per second (CPS)• Use with single- to four-part carbonless or five-part carbon copy forms• Weight extraction smart mode for quickly capturing streamed weight data• Remote print function via RS-232• Mess-free ink cartridge• Battery-backed time/date• Sequential ticket numbering

Go to ricelake.com/ticketpress for more info.


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information and training dates.

230 W. Coleman Street Rice Lake WI 54868

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Weighing Systems

Sharpen skills and update their knowledge by sending them to Rice Lake Technical Training Seminars. They will learn hands-on from experts who teach, demonstrate, and work one-on-one with students. New and experienced scale techs use the latest weighing equipment, software and techniques.

SA-101 New Sales Class added!SALES & APPLICATION TRAINING

MS-101UNDERSTANDING MECHANICAL SCALES

ES-111FUNDAMENTALS OF ELECTRONIC

SYSTEMS

ES-222ADVANCED SCALE SYSTEM TROUBLESHOOTING

ES-300INDICATOR FORMATTING AND PROCESS CONTROL

ES-301920i® PROGRAMMING

Go to ricelake.com/training for more details, or call 800-472-6703 and ask for our training coordinator.

Recalibrate Your Scale Techs


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