Famous animal scientist praises HyLife device

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A new feature at HyLife’s pork processing plant in Neepawa should be the new gold standard across its industry, says world-renowned animal scientist Temple Grandin.

The weaning ramp, developed by HyLife’s Continuous Improvement team engineers, was built to make transporting piglets to the location where they are vaccinated easier on the animals and employees who handle them.

Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, toured the Neepawa site during a recent visit to Canada to evaluate HyLife facilities. She was impressed by the company’s animal handling practices and the new ramp, according to a press release issued by HyLife on Monday.

The Sun was unable to reach Grandin for an interview this week.

“I can’t say enough good things about it. It should go industry wide. I was amazed how well those little pigs used the ramp,” she stated in the release.

The ramp will improve treatment of the pigs and make the handlers’ job easier, she added.

Before, workers struggled to pick up the animals and bring them to the vaccination station, said Lyle Loewen, senior vice-president of HyLife’s farm division.

But the new contraption eliminates the need for workers to physically hoist the animals, who now enter an alleyway toward the ramp and move through it in groups.

Once up the ramp, a gate using a pulley system is lowered, and employees can begin picking up the piglets from waist-height to be vaccinated. They are placed on a sloping slide, depending on their gender, and are brought down safely to ground level after their vaccinations are complete, the company explained.

It’s the Continuous Improvement team’s job to take farm employees’ recommendations and try to engineer solutions, Loewen told the Brandon Sun.

“We’re always trying to improve the workplace for our employees, which is a big thing, and improve the space for our pigs as well.”

Feedback from employees who work with the piglets on the new ramp has been very positive, Loewen said.

“They were saying the same thing … that it made [handling the piglets] one of the more enjoyable tasks in the barn because it was so much less stressful and easier on their backs.”

In addition to earning Grandin’s praise, the new ramp also won the Dr. F.X. Ahern Prize for Innovative Pork Production at the 2023 Banff Pork Seminar this month.

Winning the award was a proud day for HyLife, Loewen said.

“Receiving top honours on a national stage and Dr. Grandin’s endorsement of the concept, design and execution reaffirms our efforts.”

HyLife plans to install ramps across all its sow barns. The Continuous Improvement team is also working on a list of more than 150 initiatives that aim to improve workplaces for both animals and people.

mleybourne@brandonsun.com

Twitter: @miraleybourne