Automatic washing of pig farms ensures high hygiene levels
The fast implementation of automatic washing of pig farms in Denmark leads the way to increased hygiene and efficiency internationally. At the same time, automated washing can help strengthen biosecurity by reducing the need for external people to enter farm facilities.
Maintaining high hygiene levels is essential in modern pig production. Without efficient and up-to-date equipment, cleaning pig houses can be labour-intensive and time-consuming. Danish company Washpower has developed automatic washing robots for agriculture, helping farmers reduce the hardest part of the cleaning process while maintaining high hygiene standards.
Washing robot increases work environment and biosecurity
Washpower’s washing robots are designed to reduce manual high-pressure cleaning and improve the working environment for farm staff. The robots carry out the hard manual work of washing with high pressure washers and thus increase the working environment, as this is the most demanding part of the washing process. In addition, the general hygiene levels increase due to more attention on the final part of the washing process, being the soaping and disinfection process. In addition, the general hygiene levels increase due to more attention on the final part of the washing process, being the soaping and disinfection process. The company has delivered more than 2,000 washing robots across more than 35 countries since 2016.
automatic wash process is cut down from 5 hours per one section to 4, optimising existing working processes without compromising on quality and increases hygiene levels
The automatic washing process removes the need for external people in the farms which increases biosecurity and frees up time for the normal staff to take care of the piglets and pigs. Finally, the washing robot is often quicker in doing the job and it can run during the night. This increase the drying time enhancing the production cycle and thus increase earnings and biosecurity.
Increasing hygiene levels in the US
In 2019, US-based Pipestone Veterinary Services tested Washpower’s washing robot to improve the working environment, reduce manual high-pressure cleaning, increase hygiene levels and speed up the washing process without compromising quality.
After a demonstration, Pipestone Veterinary Services found that the automatic washing process had met all their goals: Staff worked very limited with high pressure cleaning as the robot did all initial cleaning meaning that the washing process was cut down from 5 hours per one section to 4 hours. Number of staffs needed for the process was reduced from 2-3 people to 1 person, who only spend approx. 2 hours on the process. All in all, the hygiene levels were improved, staff motivation was improved substantially, and the time saved was allocated to other primary tasks in the farmhouses.
Following this test, Pipestone decided to assist other farms in US gaining the same results by entering a partnership with Washpower and let automatic washing to become a natural part of US farms in the future.
