Engineering a Better Farm

By Lilian Schaer for Livestock Research Innovation Corporation

There are many big issues facing the livestock industry, from climate change and emerging diseases to changing societal expectations and an evolving regulatory environment. It’s a topic that Livestock Research Innovation Corporation (LRIC) is working to tackle on behalf of Ontario’s livestock sector – and the answers require big ideas and new thinking, says Mike McMorris, who just recently retired as the organization’s CEO.

“The issues facing livestock now are bigger and more complex than ever before. It’s not just about better or more efficient production, although that of course is still important, but finding solutions to climate change adaptation or reducing antimicrobial use go beyond the research capacity of a single commodity,” McMorris says.  

“We need to involve experts from automation, engineering, computer science and other fields and use their skills and knowledge to support the betterment of the livestock sector,” he adds.

According to McMorris, key to making this happen is fostering cross-sectoral research approaches and building relationships with scientists and experts not traditionally linked to agriculture who can bring new perspectives to the table, like engineering or computer science for example.

This has evolved into the Engineering a Better Farm initiative, with LRIC working to learn what on-farm challenges could be solved with engineering while also starting to make connections with some of Ontario’s engineering schools to introduce them to possibilities offered by the agriculture sector.