Farmscape for November 21, 2016

A multi-disciplinary multi-institutional team of researchers expects to be ready by March to demonstrate new technology designed to speed up the washing of swine transport trailers.
A team of researchers from the University of Saskatchewan, the Prairie Swine Centre, VIDO-InterVac and the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute is working in partnership with Swine Innovation Porc to reduce the time it takes and the costs associated with washing and disinfecting swine transportation equipment and ultimately automating the system.
Dr. Terry Fonstad, a Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, says engineers with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute have been able to dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to clean the equipment.

Clip-Dr. Terry Fonstad-University of Saskatchewan:
They've been using a vacuum system, the same grainvac, hydrovac systems that are used in industry and they've been able to design tools for the ends of these hoses using some physics of air flow velocities and openings and that type of thing to be able to show that we can use them to vacuum the material, and particularly the initial material, the bedding and manure out of these trailers to the point where, what we did with a fire hose and a shovel, now we can do with a suction tube.
That's a big saving right at the beginning.
Then the next phase of this is now washing a wash slash vacuum system to clean the ceiling and the floors and the walls to a standard that is then able to be disinfected.
We're down to several houses rather than an eight hour period.

Dr. Fonstad says the goal is to have a manual system ready to demonstrate by March 2017 showing the tools and how this automatable system cam be used.
He notes, while it is possible to automate any manual system, it's important to determine what parts of the system are economical to automate but, even as a manual system, the technology is going to be helpful to the industry.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork