Cargill develops industry-first robotic cattle driver
Robots to improve animal welfare and employee safety by keeping cattle and workers separated.
October 22, 2018
Cargill has developed an industry-first robotic cattle driver aimed at improving animal welfare and employee safety. The robots are designed to move cattle from pens to the harvest area at the company's processing plants, reducing stress to the animals by minimizing their proximity to human activity while improving employee safety.
According to Cargill, employees operate the robots from a catwalk located above the pens, reducing risks to safety by keeping those who work in the cattle yard portion of processing plants at a greater distance from the 1,300 lb. animals.
“The robotic cattle driver developed by Cargill is a major innovation in the handling and welfare of farm animals,” said Temple Grandin, professor of animal sciences at Colorado State University. “This device will lead to huge strides in employee safety while moving large animals and reduce the stress on cattle across the country.”
Cargill Protein spent two years developing the prototype, with significant input from animal welfare experts such as Grandin, beef plant employees and engineers from equipment supplier Flock Free, the announcement said. Using waving automated arms, blowers and audio recordings to move cattle in a desired direction, the robots can operate in rain, snow or mud, with no delay in daily operations, Cargill added.
Testing was conducted at Cargill’s Wyalusing, Pa., and Schuyler, Neb., beef processing facilities to determine a design and operational attributes of the robot that would effectively improve animal welfare and employee safety before being implemented at the company’s U.S. and Canadian beef plants.
“The average bovine weighs almost three-quarters of a ton, and our plant processes several-thousand head of cattle daily,” said Sammy Renteria, general manager of the Cargill beef plant in Schuyler. “This innovation provides a much safer workplace for our employees and allows them to develop new technology expertise as they manage and operate the robot.”
The robotic cattle drivers are currently being implemented at Cargill Protein beef plants in the U.S. and Canada. They are manufactured by the New Jersey-based company Flock Free.
Cargill said it believes the robotic cattle driver has multiple applications for improving animal handling and worker safety across livestock and poultry supply chains and is working toward making them available for use throughout the industry.
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