Manners Farms chickens were happier, healthier and tastier after a trial in Northern Ontario’s first fully automated pasture barn last summer.

Farming couple Zach and Chelsea Manners are the first in the North to embrace the emerging trend toward agricultural automation on their 160-acre poultry farm located in the heart of the Temiskaming Shores Agricultural District. But they probably won’t be the last.

“It changed our routines 100 percent,” Zach said. “I don’t have to get up so early to do chores.” We don’t reach burnout, so we can enjoy farming.

Before purchasing their Rova Barn, manufactured by the Manitoba company Ukkö RoboticsZach had been forced into a “daily routine” of feeding the birds several times a day as part of a “controlled feeding” program to avoid negative health effects resulting from overfeeding.

“With the old system,” Zach said, “I would weigh the feed every day, go out to the pasture with the tractor and fill the waters.”

Watch the video below to see Ukkö Robotics’ Rova Barn in action:

After seeing and tentatively pricing the Rova barn online, the Manners thought they should postpone buying a barn until they were able to save enough money.

But the couple was able to acquire the technology much earlier thanks to a grant from the Sustainable New Agrifood Products and Productivity (SNAPP) program administered by the Rural Agro-Innovation Network (RAIN).

A division of Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre, RAIN strives to enhance business growth in the agriculture and food sector by developing initiatives through innovative agricultural research and development projects.

SNAPP offers individual applicants like Manners Farms up to $10,000 at 50% cost sharing to purchase equipment or technology that will improve productivity and efficiency through innovation.

“If we hadn’t gotten the grant, we would have had to wait a year, maybe two,” Zach said. “It was a big help.”

The same goes for the Rova barn, which eliminates the need for constant daily maintenance by using a bulk tank for grain, automatic feeders and a bulk tank for water.

“It’s basically once a week, you fill the water, refill the food, keep an eye on him and let him do his thing,” Zach explained.

The 200 square foot barn holds up to 150 chickens at a time and is set on a large, flat, open pasture. Following a pre-programmed schedule, the coop moves on wheels along the pasture up to 20 times per day to provide the birds with fresh food.

The barn is highly customizable and can be programmed for optimal animal comfort and safety.

“You move them throughout the morning and leave them in the afternoon when it’s hot, and you leave them in the evening when it’s cool,” Zach explained.

Farmers can keep an eye on the chicken coop via a smartphone app, which has cameras that can be used to monitor the chickens from anywhere in the world and also check the temperature and ventilation inside the chicken coop.

On Instagram, Farms of manners articles on the process of introducing chickens to the moving coop starting with moving them once a day under supervision, so the birds can get used to “…the sights and sounds of their new home moving into the fresh grass.

The Manners say saving northern farmers time while maintaining high standards is a huge benefit to farm families like theirs looking to supply produce to Northern Ontario. Most small farmers or niche agricultural businesses in the North are run by farmers who have full-time jobs in addition to their farming business.

Zach currently works full-time as a mechanic at his family’s business, Precision Auto Body, and Chelsea works as a pharmaceutical buyer at Findlay’s Pharmacy in New Liskeard in addition to managing direct customer sales at Manners Farms.

Chelsea, who comes from a fourth-generation Northern Ontario dairy farming family, said she is hopeful that technologies like the Rova barn will help northern farm families who are overworked and often suffer from burnout professional.

“My dad missed a lot of family things, so this allows people to spend more time with their family,” she said.

The technology also allows Manners Farms to stand out to buyers in Témiscamingue, where only a handful of other farms offer pasture-raised poultry.

“It gives you the advantage of growing things on pasture without all the work,” Zach said.

Raising birds on pasture is more labor intensive than traditional barn-raised poultry, but the Manners believe the end product is worth the higher standard. Local consumers seek out pasture-raised poultry due to factors such as higher meat quality and increased health benefits.

“There’s more omega-3 (fatty acids) and more vitamin D,” Chelsea said. “And there’s a lot less fat in birds than in barn birds.”

Foraging in pastures allows for a more varied and nutritious diet than just a grain-based diet, and it also allows birds to move more, resulting in leaner meat and bigger, stronger birds.

Zach was surprised to find that the first birds he raised in the Rova barn weighed an average of a pound more while maintaining better health.

When the Manners first asked family and friends if they could taste the difference, they responded with a resounding “yes.” Their loyal customers and constantly growing customer base also attest to the quality of their products.

“We started small (in 2022) and doubled in 2023 when we did 280,” Zach said. “This year we went up to 300.”

Small poultry farmers can produce a maximum of 300 chickens per year for sale from manager to consumer, according to the Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO), which regulates the province’s poultry industry.

In the future, Chelsea and Zach hope to increase their poultry sales through CFO’s artisan chicken program, which would allow them to sell up to 900 chickens per year. The acquisition of an additional, larger Rova barn with increased capacity will likely be part of this expansion.

The Manners also dream of expanding into other livestock and continuing to grow their farms enough that they can one day make farming their full-time job.

— First appeared in Village Media’s Northern Ontario Businesses.