12 Story Idea? Contact Paul.Nolan@Farms.com Better Pork | October 2024 ENGINEERING A BETTER FARM There are many big issues facing the livestock industry, from climate change and emerging diseases to changing societal expectations and an evolving regulatory environment. It’s a topic that Livestock Research Innovation Corporation (LRIC) is working to tackle on behalf of Ontario’s livestock sector – and the answers require big ideas and new thinking, says Mike McMorris, who just recently retired as the organization’s CEO. “The issues facing livestock now are bigger and more complex than ever before. It’s not just about better or more efficient production, although that, of course, is still important, but finding solutions to climate change adaptation or reducing antimicrobial use go beyond the research capacity of a single commodity,” McMorris says. “We need to involve experts from automation, engineering, computer science and other fields and use their skills and knowledge to support the betterment of the livestock sector,” he adds. According to McMorris, the key to making this happen is fostering cross-sectoral research approaches and building relationships with scientists and experts not traditionally linked to agriculture who can bring new perspectives to the table, like engineering or computer science, for example. This has evolved into the Engineering a Better Farm initiative, with LRIC working to learn what on-farm challenges could be solved with engineering while also starting to make connections with some of Ontario’s engineering schools to introduce them to possibilities offered by the agriculture sector. It’s attracted the interest of Dr. Mary Wells, Dean of Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada’s largest engineering school with over 10,500 students and ranked in the top 50 globally for engineering and technology. “The Engineering a Better Farm initiative aligns well with Waterloo Engineering priorities and expertise in teaching, experiential education, research and innovation,” she notes. “We’re interested in growing our connections with the livestock sector; there is good interest among our researchers to work more closely with agriculture, and key to this is building connections and networks.” She was the keynote speaker at a panel discussion LRIC hosted in Elora, Ont. in June that explored how research from outside the agriculture sector could be used for the benefit of the livestock industry. She was joined on the panel by Drumbo, Ont.-area dairy producer Chris McLaren, Ontario Agricultural College Associate Dean Rebecca Hallett, and Darrell Petras, CEO of the Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network. “In some cases, technologies have already been developed at Waterloo that could apply to livestock and agriculture and could be targeted and modified to fit the needs of the farming sector. It would be fantastic to see some of this work we do translate into livestock applications.” This includes work in areas like robotics and automation, vision and imaging, data capture, wireless communications, sensors, artificial intelligence and explainable decision-making, cyber security, logistics and supply chain management, remote monitoring, climate change and environmental sustainability, energy, air quality, biomedical devices, biomanufacturing, epidemiology and more. Wearable devices can provide real-time monitoring of health indicators and could be expanded to include wearable medication delivery systems. Innovations in robotics will replace repetitive tasks to reduce labour costs and ensure consistent quality or delivUniversity of Waterloo photo BUILDING BRIDGES OUTSIDE OF TRADITIONAL LIVESTOCK RESEARCH FIELDS ENGINEERING A BETTER FARM BY LILIAN SCHAER, FOR LIVESTOCK RESEARCH INNOVATION CORPORATION
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