Elanco Enhances PenPoint Offering for Feedyards

Today Elanco Animal Health announces the addition of PenPoint Sort to help cattle feeders maximize profitability. PenPoint Sort adds to the existing Elanco Knowledge Solutions portfolio of services designed to optimize practices and products through trusted tools, technologies and insights to empower data-driven decision making. 

PenPoint Sort is a bolt-on chute technology system that helps simplify the difficult task of objectively measuring and sorting cattle. It’s easy to install and compatible with any existing feedyard processing chute with scales. PenPoint Sort uses a camera system to capture compositional metrics to provide sorting decisions at the speed of processing. 

“We continue to hear from our cattle feeder customers that consistent labor is both hard to find and challenging to keep,” said Michael Genho, executive director of Elanco’s Knowledge Solutions team. “PenPoint Sort helps to reduce this burden by eliminating the need for manual measurement and an additional chute-side operator, which was required for the original PenPoint technology. At the same time, it provides more accurate and informed management with more consistent finishing targets at marketing.”

PenPoint Sort is backed by research and built for the toughest feedyard environments, helping producers minimize risk and maximize their return on investment. Cattle sorted and projected with the PenPoint algorithm produced both increased live and hot carcass weights; were more consistent in size and maturity; when sold on a grid, delivered more premiums and less discounts; and when sold live, cattle returned more value due to increased live weights.1 With continued increased costs to finish cattle, PenPoint Sort has the opportunity to provide feedyards with options to improve the sustainability and efficiency of their business.

 One of the key features of the technology is that it is built to work even when internet connections are unreliable.  

“We know rural internet connectivity is a struggle for many cattle feeders and reliability was important to us,” says Genho. “PenPoint Sort syncs with a web-based user interface that allows run set-up, real-time run monitoring and report running from anywhere on any device. If the internet is down or lost during operation, the camera system will continue to record sort decisions and will sync run data back to a web-based platform once connection is restored. All of this helps to avoid costly disruptions when processing.” 

Elanco is committed to the health and success of cattle operations by providing resources, tools and products to manage key diseases, optimize productivity and minimize parasite impact. PenPoint Sort offers cattle feeders unique profit optimizing technology.  

¹ Garcia, D., Garrison, M., Swingle, R. 2004. “The Value of Group-Based Cattle Sorting.”