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MAKE Podcast
Electric Tractor
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Welcome to the University of Manitoba Resources for Agricultural Engineering podcast! Your gateway to discovering the latest innovations, research, and practical solutions in agricultural engineering.
In this episode, host and Agriculture research extension Engineer, Dr. Uduak Edet chats with Jason Bourcier, Operations Manager at Glenlea Research Station in Manitoba, about his experience with electric tractors and insights its features, and how it compares to traditional diesel tractors in terms of operation and power output.
Hello, and welcome to the University of Manitoba Resources for Agriculture Engineering Podcast. I am your host Uduak Edet, an agricultural research extension engineer in the Department of Biosystem Engineering. This podcast is your gateway to discovering the latest innovations research and practical solution in agricultural engineering. Our mission is to forge meaningful connections with the agricultural community and help farmers address their engineering needs and aspiration. Today I am joined by Jason Bourcier, who is the operations manager at Glenlea Research Station in Manitoba . Before we discuss electric tractors, please tell us about yourself.
Jason BourcierSure. Hi, Uduak. Thanks for having me. So it's, I guess a bit of a long story, but I'll try and make it as brief as I can. So I'm from a small agriculture community in southern Manitoba called St . Jean Baptiste. It's actually where I went to high school, and after high school, I jumped into university of Manitoba and University one as students do nowadays. And I had an interest in jumping into architecture, so I went into architecture and just, I don't know , I just didn't see myself there. I didn't feel like I was in the right place, so I decided to stop university, get into the workforce a little bit. And during that time I worked, you know, on the side of business, some construction, concrete side. And then agriculture. I grew up on a grain farm. My grandpa was a, a grain farmer. So during that process, you know, I had some time to reflect. I also got married, had two children, which complicated the situation of wanting to go back to school. But I gathered the courage and went back to school later in life, I guess. So it was probably closer to 30 by that time. And kind of started in agriculture because I was comfortable there. So I moved credits over to agriculture got into the faculty, but still kind of unsure of where my career path would take me. So I actually... I always naturally enjoyed working with animals. And we always had animals on the grain farm more for hobby. I jumped into a work experience programs that animal science was offering at the time I worked in the dairy under this program. And just like, I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot, you know, was working everyday with the animals, or not every day , I guess I was a student at the time, so it was, I got more of a part-time basis and then full-time in the summer. So I really enjoyed the program that animal science offered at the time. And then I kind of figured out, okay, that's the direction I'm gonna go , animal science. So I started taking courses towards my animal science degree, just because I was also working full-time. It was challenging to take courses during the day, so I looked at different programs and found a program actually in arts, it's called a Bachelor of Arts and Integrated Studies. So I was able to work towards that degree with a major in animal systems. So it's still kind of on a similar path, but maybe missing some of the more technical courses on the science side. So I was... I finished up that degree and as I said I was working full time , so that's where I got a lot of experience. And that was mainly at the Glendale Research Station , because after the work experience program, there was some vacancies there. So I figured since I kind of had that interest in working with animals, I would work here, gain some experience, go back to school, get my degree. So I worked about 10 years in the swine research facility. And then from there, I worked in... I managed the laying hen facility, which was on campus at the time. Right now we have it at Glenlea. And then after the poultry, I worked as a research coordinator and then moved into operations manager in 2019. So that's a bit about my background. You know, I've got... my two kids keep me very busy, so there's not a lot of time for, you know, hobbies and things like that. But , you know, I love the outdoors and sports and fishing, that sort of thing.
Uduak EdetThat's good. You have a kind of like broad experience. Just curious, how's your day to day ? What's your day-to-day duty like as an operation manager, or tell us a bit about the Glenlea Research Station, and what you do there ?
Jason BourcierRight. So the day-to-day in my position is very different to when I started working directly with the animals. Now you know, I still get to interact with the animals, but it's more... it's pretty rare. Actually, right now I'm more interacting with members of my team. So under the umbrella of the Glenlea Research Station we have about 1200 acres of land , our dairy facility and... is a 55 head milking herd, like robotic herd. We have the layer facility , the swine facility is 150 sow, fair to finish. And we have our feed mill. So each of those areas have managers. So I'm meeting regularly with those managers. You know, we're setting goals, targets , monitoring progress , planning a lot. And then of course there's the financial aspect of it as well. But I'm basically supervising the staff at the research station. And then I work closely with Kate Cummings, the Farm and Food Discovery Centre manager. Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre. So we work closely with them because any visitors that they have , the visitors are coming through the station here. So occasionally, you know, we will participate or collaborate with them on tours. And so helping them, you know, bring people through and explaining, you know, what they're seeing in front of... in our public spaces where visitors can see inside the operations.
Uduak EdetOkay. So what kind of agricultural machine do you have on at the Glenlea Research Station?
Jason BourcierWe have many different types and sizes of ag equipment from , UTVs - like side-by-side to skid steers to, you know, smaller garden tractors, obviously lawnmowers, and then front end loaders as well. And then a variety of implements that we use. And then most recently we added to our... this summer we added to our fleet an electric tractor, which is the Monarch , MKV is what it's called. So we've been figuring out how to best utilize this machine on our current operation.
Uduak EdetOkay. Can you describe the features of these electric tractors?
Jason BourcierYeah. So it is a Lithium Ion electric tractor. That's a battery. It has... it does have an autonomous operating feature, which requires a subscription. So currently we don't have that subscription, but it does have that feature. It has a smart screen actually on the tractor, which allows different users to log in, and then it'll track data for each user. And you can also save different implements , so if you have one user that uses mower or tiller lots, and then another one that just hooks up to a trailer, you can set different parameters and save them according to what implement or trailer you're, you're gonna hook up to. So it has at the back of the tractor, so this is more of a... I would consider one of our smaller tractors. It's considered a 40 horsepower tractor, and that's the power takeoff , horsepower or PTO. The engine itself, the peak motor power can hit 70 horsepower. So it does have the 3 point hitch, like our other diesel tractors that would be that size. And it has hydraulics, it has a drawbar , which means that you can use different types of implements like mowers, tillers, sprayers, different disc carrows or cultivators. You can pull trailers , put a blade on it at the front so you can push feed up for dairy cows or beef animals, you can use it for manure spreaders. And it does have a port for exportable power as well.
Uduak EdetOkay. What infrastructure did you need when you, when you guys got the, the electric tractor?
Jason BourcierIt actually is pretty minimal. Of course, you'd always like to park your equipment indoors to protect them from the elements, but it's... that's more of optional. What's required is you need a home base for your tractor where it... you have a charger, so there's a few different, there's quite a few chargers to pick from. We selected a 40 amp flow charger for this specific tractor. So the 40 amp, you can get up to 80 amp, I believe, which will charge the tractor faster. But typically we were fine with the 40 amp , because, well , we charge the tractor overnight , so it would take 10 or 12 hours or some around that to do a full charge, so we can just charge it overnight and then, and then it'll be ready to go in the morning.
Uduak EdetOkay, what was your general perception of the electric tractor when you first , either drove it or saw it?
Jason BourcierYeah, I thought it was really cool. I mean, it's got a futuristic look to it , so the appearance was very unique. It really fits where technology-wise, things are going. So operating the tractor , my perception was good. I was excited to use it. And when it came to operating, it is very similar to a diesel tractor in terms of its controls. I would say the main difference was that, and you can get this between different brands of diesel tractors too, like the sensitivity of your throttle, or of your accelerator pedal. But this electric tractor, in particular, is very sensitive. Once you get used to it, it's a good thing that it's so sensitive. I like it better and it's quiet compared to a diesel tractor as well.
Uduak EdetOkay. Now, since you run a farm animal farm, is it quite an advantage compared to a traditional diesel tractor?
Jason BourcierDoes it have an advantage? I think working around, so we haven't used it to its potential yet, but absolutely. The more quiet when you can work around animals, the better. So , the power output of the machine is quite good . It has excellent torque, which is, you know, which allows it to... when you're using an implement to kind of stay quiet. Of course if you're increasing the power, your RPMs, then it does get louder. But it's not as loud as a diesel tractor. So it's great for working around the animals, but it's also good for the operator and the hearing protection that would be required to operate that piece of equipment.
Uduak EdetOkay. So what type of operations have you used the electric tractor so far?
Jason BourcierWell I mentioned the kind of the different implements that you could use for it, and currently we don't have any implements for it, but the ones that we'd be interested in would absolutely be a mower, tiller and a front bucket for it. So that's what we're looking to get for this tractor. It is designed more for vineyards and that type of work out in California, but it does have really good use around a dairy operation as well. So currently we're only using it to pull trailers. So we , we have what we call a people mover trailer. So this would be for our tours at the Bruce D Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre. So they would... we can take up to 30 guests on the people mover trailer and pull them around to different stops that we have or different stations at the farm.
Uduak EdetOkay. So what's your plan? This coming summer or this coming season? What's the intent to use the electric tractor for?
Jason BourcierSo the intent for this summer is we want to continue using it for tours. And that one of the reasons for that it's a very good conversation builder with the public that's coming through. Like I said, futuristic looking zero emissions, so it's a good showcase for the agriculture in industry and the way things are moving. But we also, I would like to use the 3 point hitch and use it for mowing as well this summer. So its main purpose will be to continue for tours. And another bonus is that it's quiet, so you can actually talk to the guests as you're driving as well. Whereas before you'd have to basically turn off the tractor. So it works very well for tours, but yeah, I hope to use it for mowing as well this summer.
Uduak EdetOkay. So what do you see as the biggest advantage of the electric tractor?
Jason BourcierThe biggest advantage of the electric tractor, I think hands down is zero emission, right? That's one thing that can't be replicated with a diesel tractor. I mean, it has a lot of other cool features , like the smart screen, the cameras, it has cameras , basically like a 360 camera, you can see all around this machine. So it has very good visibility, but those are things that can be replicated with a diesel tractor as well. So I think hands down is the zero emissions. And also , mobile power generator, I think that's been a huge plus for us because working with animals we have a big footprint with all the facilities that we have, and there's not power everywhere. So some... previously we'd have to either hire somebody with a mobile unit to come weld if it's in an area of the farm that we can't access or use extension cords. So this basically eliminates that. We can plug a welder right into the tractor, so it's a mobile generator and weld any penning or anything like that that we have that needs repair on the farm.
Uduak EdetOkay. What in terms of the electric tractor, how has it actually impacted your workflow compared to when you didn't have it? How has it actually affected your workflow, whether it's in terms of labor management maintenance routine?
Jason BourcierYeah, so I think it's completely replaced one of our diesel tractors of comparable size. So we had, previously we had two 40 horsepower diesel tractors. So it's replaced one of those. So it's the workflow, I think it's been seamless because it's very similar to operating a diesel tractor. Of course, with any new piece of equipment, there's some staff training required, but if they've... if the staff have operated a diesel tractor of that size, it was really no challenge at all to get them to adjust on the labor management side. I don't think we've seen any change yet because we've, we haven't used it to its potential. But we have seen, you know, a decrease in the kind of like the end of season maintenance that's required for our equipment because obviously it's battery operated, there's less fluids to change at the end of the season. And it did decrease our fuel usage. So we did replace one tractor, right? So we had about 480 liters of diesel fuel that we didn't have to purchase over the last year because of the electric tractor.
Uduak EdetOkay. So did you at any point in time do like a cost analysis to see how much electric consumption you did versus the diesel it end up saving?
Jason BourcierBecause we didn't, you know... we only used it for tours, so it's not used a lot during the day. We didn't do that. We haven't done that comparison yet. I think we could certainly do that in the future, but mainly with our tours the tractor is going from point, you know, basically that's four stops along a tour route and a tour could last all afternoon. And when they're stopped, you're not using any energy. So we don't really need to charge it very often. The most we've... the longest we've ever had the tractor continuously working was 4 hours, and at the end of the four hours we still had 80% of battery. So I'd imagine it would be pretty favourable if we did a cost analysis, but we haven't done that yet.
Uduak EdetOkay. How about your other team members or other staff, what was their own perception about the electric tractor?
Jason BourcierI think we're excited about it . We have 13 full-time staff here, and most of them , well... all of them have seen it and maybe half of them have driven it. I think the feedback has been good. They like the sensitivity of the machine , and the cameras. I've heard that from most people just because, especially the rear camera has... it's very clear and you can see quite a ways . So when you're carrying 30 people behind you in a trailer, you know, you don't have to turn your head all the time, you're just... you can watch your screen. So that was a big plus. And then the decreased noise generated from the tractor was also mentioned quite a few times.
Uduak EdetOkay. Do you have any concern about using the electric tractor?
Jason BourcierI don't have any major concerns about using the electric tractor. I think the only thing that comes to mind would be , once we get it going, for some of its other tasks like mowing maybe the concern would be longevity of the battery. But at this point I've been impressed with the battery and how long it's lasted. We've never really gotten close to running out of battery power. The tech components, you know, as we've seen in some of our livestock facilities, as things get more advanced and everything is data driven . You're not sure on how long these tech components last and they're usually quite expensive. So that is a bit of a concern moving forward. And agriculture, especially with animals, it can be messy, right? You're cleaning pens and for biosecurity, because these pieces of equipment could be used in multiple areas of the farm, so we have to wash them. And this particular model of electric tractor, I'm not sure if they're all like this, but you can't pressure wash it because of the technical components. So it's recommended to use like a garden hose with soap and water to wash the tractor. So it takes a little more time to do that. So those would be my only concerns.
Uduak EdetOkay. So do you think electric tractor is the future of farming? Why or why not?
Jason BourcierI guess that's the question right now. It's a hard question to answer. I think it certainly has its place. All industries, you know, whether it's dairy, pork or poultry, everybody's looking at decreasing their environmental footprint. So this is a tool that can certainly help do that. And especially on the smaller equipment side. On the smaller equipment side, I don't think there's any concern. I think we can replace diesel or gas with electric on the smaller equipment side. So you know, anything from like this size tractor to smaller ones, like a lawn mower , I think the largest tractor that's out there right now for electric is just shy of a hundred horsepower. So that would be, you know, twice the size of this one. So yeah, I think there's a place for electric tractors in the future. I think the concern that I would have is when you get to those really large pieces of equipment that are used where you require a lot of horsepower and maybe we'll see more of a hybrid version where tractors can use less fuel to decrease your emissions, but also use , you know, electric battery or electric. And that could be on the tractor side or it could even be on the implement side. Because if the implements have, you know, electric power to it, that will decrease the, the size of tractor that you need. I think there's lots of options. There's, you know, a lot of research or testing to do before we're at that point, but I think it certainly has potential and I definitely like what I've seen so far from the electric side.
Uduak EdetOkay. You mentioned a lot about field work, using the electric truck for field work . What part of animal production do you think the electric tractor would be most suited for? Or you can actually use it for...
Jason BourcierAnimal production?
Uduak EdetLike I know that you use the skids steers there to kind of lift, manually. It's a bit smaller than the electric tractor you have, but just thinking if there's an option to use it or what other kind of operation do you think you can actually use it for?
Jason BourcierOur heifers and dairy cows would be fed a few times a day, and this is in an outside barn, basically. So they're floor fed and throughout the day they're eating their feed and their feed gets out of reach, right? They have to stick their head through the head gate to eat. So that's one area where we could use that tractor because they can put a blade on the tractor and then this tractor can just , you know, drive the feed alley and push up the feed so it's more accessible to the cows. And if you're using that autonomous feature, you know, you can just set it up so that it can do that periodically throughout the day. I think that would be a really good benefit. And then this particular tractor, I think the challenge has been with maneuvering. I'm not sure if it would translate to other electric tractors, but this one in particular, if you wanted to use it for cleaning an animal pen, it would be challenging because of the way it moves. And the turning radius, there's a huge advantage to having an electric option for a tractor to clean animal pens because some of our animal pens are inside buildings, right? So now you're not getting any noxious gases being produced inside your building, which is better for the people, better for the animals. It's quiet, and so if we could correct... make the machine more agile like a skid steer, that would be great.
Uduak EdetOkay. Thank you. Is there, is there anything you would like to share about your perception of the electric tractor ?
Jason BourcierI mean, it's been very exciting, I guess to have one available to use at the Glenlea research station. I really like data when working with livestock in the barns with the animals. So I really liked the idea that you can collect data with this tractor and just, you know, see what it's doing throughout the day. And I mean I'm excited to use the autonomous feature on that because I believe you can get even more data collected through an app. But yeah, I really have enjoyed having the tractor here and having, you know, something with all that technology. It's super popular in the industry now to talk about different types of technology in agriculture. So having that onsite is a really good talking point for all visitors and definitely look forward to trying it out on, you know, for different tasks and seeing how it performs.
Uduak EdetOkay, thank you so much Jason Bourcier, it's been a pleasure meeting you and learning more about your experience with the electric tractor at the Glenlea Research Station in Manitoba. We are certainly looking forward to hearing more about your experience after the summer. Thank you all for listening, and please stay tuned for more upcoming podcasts on the University of Manitoba Resources for agricultural engineering, your gateway to discovering the latest innovation, research and practical solution in agricultural engineering.