George Foxcroft winner
The George Foxcroft Lectureship award to recognize outstanding excellence in swine production research was given to Dr. John Harding, during the Banff Pork Seminar.
Harding’s research “is directly applicable to our industry and holds the potential to improve production efficiency,” said Ben Willing, a University of Alberta agriculture professor.
“His distinguished research career has focused on several critical pillars of our industry including developing mitigation strategies for swine dysentery, advancing our understanding of the pathophysiology of reproductive PRRS and disease related hypothyroidism, enhancing disease resilience in pigs to ensure a more robust production cycle and has been a critical member of this industry as a veterinarian,” said Willing.
The George Foxcroft Lectureship award was established to recognize Foxcroft’s enduring legacy, with the partnership of the University of Alberta, to allow the Banff Pork Seminar to host visionary researchers.

R. O. Ball Young Scientists Award
First place –
Reducing dietary acid-binding capacity changes gut pH, protein digestibility and cecal metabolites in young pigs. Presented by Lingjun Zhu of the University of Alberta
Second place –
Effects of elevated dietary amino acid supply during late gestation in sows. Presented by Ashley Kok of the University of Alberta
Other top finishers –
From the Prairies to the Farm – Are wild pigs spreading swine diseases? Presented by Oshin Ley Garcia of the University of Guelph.

Comparison between group and stall-housed herds using commercial data to identify production benefits and risks. Presented by Shuang Luo of the University of Saskatchewan.

F. X. Aherne Award for Innovation
Blue Water Wash’s plans to eliminate the car wash blues have won the company the FX Aherne Award for Innovative Pork Production.
The company had three targets when they started their plan to improve how hog trucks are washed a decade ago, said Tom Patenaude, Vice President of Operations for Blue Water Wash a division of Steves Livestock.
They wanted to reduce labour, increase wash bay throughput and reduce water consumption from their three truck wash locations in Blumenort and Brandon, Manitoba and Red Deer, Alberta.
Now, using a robotic system designed in the Netherlands, a 53 foot trailer can be cleaned in 55 minutes instead of three hours.
“That is very pretty impressive for washing a 53 ft long livestock trailer. We have been able to reduce our labour. We can also run the water hotter than anyone can hold the wand. We can get it 40 to 50 degrees hotter and not worry about employees burning their hands while washing the trailer. This isn’t a person walking into the trailer and trying to do the best job every time. This is a system you drop in and turn on. It is consistent all the time,” said Patenaude during the Banff Pork Seminar.
“We are able to get 95 percent clean without an employee entering the trailer with a hose. That was significant for us,” he said.
“We have run over 5,000 trailer wash cycles with this system. It is proving itself. We are super excited about what the future brings for this thing. We know for a fact there is nobody in the world washing livestock trailers the way we are today. We’re pretty excited about it.”
The robotic truck wash system is only at the Blumenort truck wash, but the company plans to expand the technology to the other facilities. With the new system, rotary jet spinners are lowered into the trailer from the top to clean all levels of the trailer.
Patenaude said they hope to expand the cleaning system to all commodities, not just trucks that are hauling pigs. “Cattle trailers don’t get washed as frequently as a swine trailer would but we see at some point that disease, bacteria and viruses become more a challenge for cattle producers.”
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— By Mary MacArthur