Farmer Focus: Hope robot pressure washer will do 90% of job for staff

I hope everyone is well. Rain has stopped play for harvesting, but the timing isn’t too bad for us given we have done the winter barley, winter OSR and started some wheats (80% second wheat and 20% first wheat), which have yielded over the weighbridge at 9.23t/ha, 4.32t/ha and 9.44t/ha respectively.

The only pain is that we couldn’t get all the straw in due to a breakdown, so I’m sure we will have a bit of fun trying to dry that out following the 20mm it has had on it so far.

See also: Pig farms making small changes see savings of £250k/year

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Jack Bosworth

Livestock Farmer Focus writer Essex pig farmer Jack Bosworth farms 263ha of arable and a 540-sow farrow-to-finish operation in partnership with his family. About 60% of pigs are finished at home and 150 are sent to a farm in Norfolk to finish on a bed and breakfast contract.

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The rain stopping play has at least given the guys a weekend off and will certainly help us push on with some cultivations.

We have about 170ha remaining, whereas this time last year we had 260ha left.

Turning attention to the pigs, we submitted our application for the next round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund before the midday deadline on 10 July, having been in discussion with a company that offers robotic pressure washers.

We first saw them at the last Pig & Poultry Fair, and it has been on the list to look further into for some time.

They are certainly not cheap (which is why we are needing the grant), but subject to our application being successful, we believe it to be a worthwhile investment.

It’s one that not only saves a lot of time for various members of the team, but also improves the working environment for those who have pressure washing to do as part of their role.

This particular machine is capable of doing up to 90% of the job – and the first 90% is a lot worse to be washing than the final 10%, that’s for sure.

If we are fortunate, then there will be a significant amount of time invested in getting the machine set up due to the training it requires to learn the cleaning protocol for each building we have.

For such an advanced machine, this is quite a slow and manual process that involves using a controller to navigate all the movements of the machine.

I have no doubt, however, that the more we put into the correct setup, the more time we will save the at other end.