Robots

Agricultural engineer Yves Choinière describes his work – he considers himself generalist who applies technology from many engineering disciplines to the creation of food. Over the past two decades, farming has been transformed by automation – for example: monitoring animal well being, milking robots, feeding robots in milk production; GPS-controlled tractors that optimize seeding, fertilizer or pesticide spraying. He works with specialists from civil engineering, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, food, chemical and food processing engineers. He selected a career in agricultural engineering because, he wanted to be an engineer and grew up on a farm – he still owns and operates a farm. He recalls the small, not very efficient, farms of the '80s and the re-engineering of farm production that was necessary to reduce workloads and enhance quality of life and productivity. At the time there was a deficit in Canadian food projection – Canada was not producing enough beef, chicken, vegetables and fruits to satisfy its own needs. He describes the development of natural ventilation systems for livestock housing, returning to the University of Ottawa to earn a Masters degree, supervised by Professor Tanaka, using wind engineering to develop systems for farm buildings. After a decade with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, he returned to Quebec to assume control of the family farm near Granby from his father. He started a private consulting company that rapidly grew - largely in response to the need for modern agricultural enterprises to be efficient – prices have not really changed over the past 40 years but costs have markedly increased.