A company in Blumenort has helped to develop a new livestock trailer that is expected to bring some positive changes to the livestock transport industry. Steve's Livestock Transport, together with Wilson Trailer of Sioux City, Iowa have come up with a new aluminium trailer that does away with ramps. Instead it uses a hydraulic system where animals are loaded on the main level and the whole floor is then lifted into place.

Rick Peters is the Vice-President of Operations for Steve's Livestock Transport. He says there are a number of benefits to this trailer.

"Animal welfare is a key one. Any stress we can reduce on the animals is key to us. Animal welfare is a very important part of our business and we take that seriously. This is also a benefit for our drivers. It makes it much easier for them to manoeuvre inside of a trailer when they're not restricted by height due to the different floor heights. So it's twofold; number one animal welfare, number two driver welfare as well.,"

Peters says they are now testing the prototype trailer and plan to convert their entire fleet in the coming years.

"We have the first prototype on the ground now. We'll start using it and, obviously, there will be some testing of it just to see how it works. But our intent would be to roll that out over the next couple of years. The manufacturer can only produce so many trailers per month so it'll be a bit until we get our fleet converted but it is something that we'll move ahead and we'll change the livestock transport industry."

Peters adds they there was a lot of interest in the trailer at World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa last week from other livestock transport companies who would like to acquire the new trailers.

Steve's Livestock transports more than 2,500 head of cattle and 150,000 pigs throughout Canada and the United States every week. Its group of companies includes Blue Water Wash, Bison View Trailers, Dawson Road Transfer and United Transportation Driver Training.