Automated washer a possible biosecurity, labour boon

Glacier FarmMedia – A hog farm in southeastern Manitoba is taking a crack at automating its barn washing process with help from a Danish robot.

“It definitely creates labour efficiencies,” said Dickson Gould, president of the Progressive Group. It is testing a Washpower robotic pressure washer in a batch farrowing barn.

Why it matters: Labour gaps and disease biosecurity have both been top of mind for the pork sector.

While it’s not the first robotic washer in Manitoba, it’s likely the first of its kind.

The robot plugs into the barn’s pressure washer system. It drives down each aisle, using short extension arms and pivoting spray heads to wash either side. Once it reaches the end of the aisle, it retraces its path, washing to get different angles.

The machine can clean about two farrowing crates in seven minutes, Gould said.

Previously, the Progressive Group brought in a custom-washing team to clean the farrowing barn once each batch of about 3,000 isoweans were shipped — about every four weeks. However, it has been looking for efficiencies, Gould said.

One reason for its decision to go robotic was to reduce vectors for porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), Gould said. While the custom-wash team did a good job, their work required more people in the barn, and thus more chances for the virus to breach biosecurity.

Manitoba hog barns have been hit by several waves of PED, which is often fatal for young pigs.

Repeated bouts over the last seven years led to more stringent washing, disinfection and biosecurity standards in the sector, said Jenelle Hamblin, manager of swine health with the Manitoba Pork Council.

“PED taught us a lot about sanitation,” she said.

Barns practice routine washing and disinfection, Hamblin noted. This cuts down on dirt and pathogens being tracked from one part of the barn to another. Farms will also deep-clean barns or barn rooms between batches of pigs.

“It really does help ensure that, should there be something that we’re not aware of, it keeps it from spreading before we know it’s there,” Hamblin said.

A robot may wash more consistently than a person, because it won’t get tired after hours of holding a pressure washer, said Theo Driedger, a salesperson at PFP Sales and Service in Blumenort, Man. The company is a Washpower dealer and provides service for the machine.

In 2022, Manitoba Pork Council general manager Cam Dahl drew a direct line between biosecurity and the sector’s labour woes.

Manitoba farms have struggled for years to find sufficient staff. A pork labour survey showed producers had been having trouble recruiting for all positions, Dahl said during the organization’s 2022 AGM.

At the same meeting, Dahl said he was convinced that understaffed barns contributed to the 2021-22 PED outbreak, which stretched to 134 infections and reinfections by the end of 2022.

“Do I have any definitive signs? No. Do I firmly believe that staff shortages make biosecurity more difficult? Yes. Is that a factor in the spread of disease? Yes, it is,” Dahl said at the time.

Automated solutions

Automation could relieve pressure on staff.

“It’s going to make an undesirable job more efficient,” Driedger said.

The robot needs a human to set it up and monitor it, and a few touch-ups may be required. However, while the machine runs, the worker can do other tasks.

PFP Sales and Service CEO Riley Plett said he was “very skeptical” about the washer at first, but was pleasantly surprised at how simple it was to operate and program.

Despite a shortage of workers almost across the board in food and agriculture, however, automation is a thorny issue.

Employers are concerned about high up-front costs for automation, according to a recent “What we heard” report on Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s labour strategy. Stakeholders in that report expressed concern that there might not be enough technicians to fix technology when it breaks, and they foresaw risks to their operations if machines failed.

While funding programs are available for new automation technologies, the report said, the parameters make it difficult to qualify.

Industry groups also noted that access is needed to high-speed broadband and 5G networks.

Thus far, the Progressive Group is “very, very pleased” with its robot, Gould said. It is working out the kinks and looking at the costs of putting the washer in other barns.

Installation required an upgrade to the barn’s pump system, Gould noted. Despite that, he expects the robot to pay for itself in two and a half years.

Once they have the system working smoothly, they plan to introduce the technology to other hog operations.

– This article was originally published at the Manitoba Co-operator.