A multi-million investment at the Olymel hog processing plant in Red Deer should make the plant more efficient, said Ian Moon, director of Hog Procurement and Vertical Integration Western Canada.
The $7.1 million investment will focus on the slaughter line at the plant, said Moon.
Last summer, upgrades were made to the evisceration line replacing belly opener robots and neck clipping robots with newer versions.
Moon described the old robots as moving in x, y and z directions and the new robots have articulated arms that allow for more precise cuts for both the belly and neck.
“The main return is for easier maintenance, lower down time and stoppages and because it has more precision cuts and it should have lower contamination rates. They are already good, but the less contamination the better,” he said.
“Those robots were getting long in the tooth and were a bit more difficult to maintain. We are always trying to optimize and we expect we will get even better operation than we had before.”
The split saw robots that cut the carcass down the spine will be replaced this upcoming October.
The plant is in the process of installing an advanced ultrasonic, image analysis grading system to replace the manual grading probes.
“It can produce a loin and fat measurement and estimated lean yield for a grading of a carcass,” he said. The computerized grading system will allow for more accurate grading.
“The expectation is it will be more consistent, for sure, and more accurate.”
Moon said the new investments are not expected to increase the roughly 40,000 hogs per week slaughtered at the central Alberta plant, but make it more efficient.
“We are actually operating at our target volumes. This is not expected to increase our speed.
“We are always looking to enhance our product quality and operational performance. That is important for everybody.” •
— By Mary MacArthur