In Canada, costs of inputs, particularly fertilizers, are on the rise, yet the prices farmers fetch for their products continue to fluctuate according to the market. For this reason, Woolliams says embracing technology is a necessity for farmers in Canada. “Grain farmers, we’re not price makers, we’re price takers,” he quips. Political influences like the federal goal of reducing fertilizer emissions by 30 per cent from 2020 levels by 2030, part of the government of Canada’s overall climate change plan, add more pressure, he says. “Farming used to be just farming. It was a lot simpler. You had this many acres that produced this many bushels, you sold it for this, and here’s what it cost. But now you’re running a multi-million-dollar business. You can’t just go off on a whim anymore,” Woolliams says. Around 150 kilometres to the north of Woolliams, second-generation dairy farmer Dave Haefliger is using automation to maximize the efficiency of his operation today, in anticipation of impending challenges. “Using robotics is a hedge against future inflation on labour,” says Haefliger. “The amount of information I get is unbelievable. I could have never dreamed of knowing this much about each cow.” Haefliger’s father immigrated from Switzerland 40 years ago and started the family dairy farm outside of Lacombe. After high school, Dave worked
as a mechanic for nearly a decade before joining the family operation five years ago. One of the first orders of business was to upgrade the barn and install two automatic milking units from Dutch agritech company Lely, a $450,000 investment. The milking units are basically big boxes that the cows walk into to feed. The unit automatically milks the cow, cleans it and applies balm to the udders when it is finished feeding. It dumps any of the off-colour milk automatically and measures how much the cows are feeding and other vital stats, using connected sensors worn around their necks. Dairy farmers have been using machines to milk cows for more than a century, but the process for previous generations, like that of Haefliger’s father, required a fair bit of elbow grease. Whereas farmers from his father’s generation wrangled the cows, hooked up the machines, monitored, disconnected and cleaned up after milking, Haefliger says almost all of his cows walk into the Lely units on their own so there’s no chasing them around. Because the Lely machines automate those formerly manual steps for milking, Haefliger says the units save him at least four hours of labour each day and that his cows are yielding 10- to 15-per cent more milk, on average, using the robots. “There are all kinds of cost savings involved. It’s unbelievable,” he says. “I really think a smaller farm
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that embraces these robots can be more efficient than a large farm.” Yet, getting farmers in Alberta to embrace the latest ag-tech can be a challenge when some practices have been around for hundreds of years. Woolliams recalls several years ago at Christmas dinner when he was trying to convince his uncle of the merits of adding autosteer to his tractor. “My uncle’s comment was basically, ‘What am I going to do? I don’t see the value in this.’ So, we sat down at the table after dinner and ran the numbers. It paid for itself, but he couldn’t see it at the time. Now he wouldn’t go without it,” Woolliams says. Not all farmers have someone like Woolliams who is willing to help them alleviate their tech trepidation. But several government initiatives and private innovation hubs are trying to keep Alberta agriculture on the vanguard. In May 2022, the Alberta government announced a $3.2 million investment to support 10 projects that enhance food production through digital solutions and automation. The funded projects include a hand-held blood analysis device that can predict sheep pregnancy and litter size using AI, robotics to enhance pork and beef grading, and the use of machine learning to predict agricultural impacts on soil health.
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