SPACE, Europe's premier agricultural trade show, focused on sustainable water management practices this year, showcasing innovative technologies like cleaning robots and rainwater collection systems designed to help livestock producers use water more efficiently while addressing growing drought and climate challenges across Europe.
- Climate Challenge: Europe experienced extreme weather this year, with Brittany reaching over 40°C (typical summer temps are low 20s), causing both drought and flooding issues.
- Smart Cleaning Robot: Battery-powered robot reduces water usage in pig house cleaning while cutting labor needs by approximately 80%, though corners still require manual cleaning.
- Rainwater Harvesting: Advanced systems for poultry houses can collect, filter, and disinfect rainwater for multiple uses, from fire suppression to drinking water.
- Multi-Source Water Management: New technologies allow farmers to mix water from various sources including rainwater, wells, and mains supply for optimal efficiency.
- Knowledge Gap: Understanding of proper water management practices varies widely among livestock producers, making education and technical support essential.
After a hot and dry European summer, little wonder that the theme for this year’s international agricultural trade show SPACE, held in Rennes, France and now in its 40th year, was water.
Under its L’Espace pour Demain special feature area, which each year highlights a major challenge, the focus this year was water. With expert workshops and technical demonstrations, the aim was to promote sustainable practices, strengthen cooperation, and provide technical support.
As the organizers pointed out, knowledge of good water use is not universal and there are various degrees of understanding. In addition, the various roundtables and discussions addressing this, an e-leaning course developed in Italy, was presented as one way to raise understanding amongst livestock producers.
Europe has been increasingly experiencing both drought and excess rainfall – weather patterns are changing. In Brittany, for example, home to the trade show, temperatures reached over 40 °C this year. A typical summer temperature in the region would be in the low 20s.
The region primarily relies on surface water for its needs, and there have been issues with both quantity and quality this year. With water needed for both human and agricultural consumption, the livestock sector is increasingly playing its part to ensure that water is consumed in the most efficient way possible.
Gaining more, using less
L’Espace pour Demain highlighted a number of products for the livestock sector in particular to better manage water.
Among those was a robot to clean pig houses. The battery charged robot can clean to left and right, and above, and uses less water than in conventional cleaning. It also reduces the need for labor. Equipped with radars and sensors the robot can detect how wide the spaces to be cleaned may be and clean around obstacles. What it cannot do is clean into corners, which must be done manually but it can reduce the need for labor by about 80%.
A rainwater collection system for use with poultry houses was also highlighted. Rainwater can be harvested and simply stored without treatment, for use in a fire, for example, or filtered and used for house washing. Alternatively, it can filter and disinfect water making it suitable for drinking. The system can also be connected to the mains water supply or water from a well, mixing water from the various sources.
