If you’re planning to enter a lifelong career as a hog barn worker, you’d better study robotics, electronics and software management.
Because there isn’t much of a future for basic manual labour in the hog barns of the future, says a leading Quebec hog industry researcher.
“I think in coming years pigs will be raised in fully automated systems,” said Candido Pomar of Agriculture Canada during the Manitoba Swine Seminar.
“I think in 10 years, maybe five years, we are not going to see much manual handling of animals or feed.”
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While Pomar did not dwell on the social impact of this revolution in hog production, it would both remove a valued source of rural jobs and also alleviate one of the chief headaches of hog barn operators.
Finding skilled and dependable labour is a chronic concern for barn managers. In the future, though, they might be looking for fewer workers overall but need more refined skills from those they hire.
Pomar said he thinks “precision” hog production will demand customized feeding and management for each pig and that this will be done mostly through automated systems that monitor individual animals. The days of groups of hogs all being fed the same rations are coming to an end.
