Staggered staffing, sanitizing, and having supplies delivered are all strategies staff are using to continue operations while keeping the workplace safe
By Jackie Clark
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Research facilities, including the Arkell Swine Research Facility at the University of Guelph, are on the list of essential workplaces in Ontario, however, staff have altered routines to maintain physical distancing while caring for the animals.
“At the end of the day we still have our flocks and herds to maintain. For that reason we definitely need our staff in,” Dave Vandenberg, the research station manager, told Farms.com.
“We have a herd of between 300-350 sows. It’s a farrow to partial-finish operation, and we have usually just over a thousand animals at any given time,” he said.
Staff are completing daily animal care routines as well as facilitating experiments when needed. Usually these tasks require at least four staff members on weekdays, and two or three on weekends, Vandenberg said.
“All ongoing research we’re still supporting,” he explained. “As far as new research right now, unless it’s something that’s very time-sensitive or something that’s considered highly important, we’re not starting any new research through this period.”
For ongoing studies, researchers have been streamlining data collection, and dropping any measurements that require a lot of people and do not have a large impact on the overall goal or results, Vandenberg added.
To prevent the potential introduction or spread of COVID-19 among staff, any work that can be completed at home is done there.
At the station “the biggest change for us is how we operate, in a sense that we’re staggering with staff what time they come in, breaks, and lunchtime – just trying to minimize the amount of close proximity between staff. And, of course, we’re doing lots of sanitizing. Some of the research work is actually done after regular shift hours,” Vandenberg said.
Researchers will sometimes come into the barns to collect data or work on trials after the full-time staff have gone home to minimize contact between people.
In terms of necessary supplies “feed is really the same, most of our feed is bulk, we have it delivered … there’s not a lot of concern there and we do make a lot of our specialty diets onsite,” Vandenberg said.
For other necessary items like cleaning supplies “we’re trying to order in as much as possible, rather than going out,” he added. Staff order in bulk to minimize the number of times items need to be purchased.
Research stations are not immune to the market challenges of the pork industry.
“A lot of our animals are shipped out for different markets, and really the market has changed,” Vandenberg said. Staff have been shipping pigs out at a higher weight than usual.
“At this point we are keeping our pigs longer,” he explained. “We’re going by the advice of the company that we ship to on what size pig they’re looking for hoping that there is a market there, so that still is a little bit of a question mark and an uncertainty. But we’re hopeful.”
“We’re trying to keep it business as usual,” Vandenberg said.
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