How Washpower Turned a Dreaded Chore into a Smooth Operation at Fink Family Farms

At Fink Family Farms, owner Bob Fink knows that clean barns are key to a healthy herd but getting them clean became a bigger challenge by the day. With one 2,400-head nursery and two 4,800-head wean-to-finish barns, the scale of the job was no small task.

“We were having a hard time finding labor,” Bob recalls. “And when we did find someone willing to do the job, scheduling became an issue. It was tough to keep things consistent.”

For Bob, the breaking point came when cleaning became not only a labor issue but a morale one. Traditional power washing was a job no one wanted. It was wet, cold, exhausting work, and it was taking a toll on his team. That’s when Bob looked into a washing robot from Washpower.

Installing the wash robot completely changed how things worked at Fink Family Farms.

“With the robot, there’s no problem getting someone to do the job,” Bob says. “We start it earlier in the day, and one of my guys goes behind it when it’s done. The guys are way happier; they aren’t wet and miserable all day long. It’s taken a horrible job and turned it into something nobody has an issue doing.”

The impact of the wash robot went beyond team morale. It made a major difference in costs and efficiency, too.

• 75% Labor Savings: Automating the barn wash process helped Bob cut labor costs for power washing by 75%.
• 50% Less Water Use: “The robot does just as good of a job with half the soak time,” he says. “It’s cut our water usage in half.”
• Better, More Consistent Cleaning: “The robot is tedious—it just creeps through the barn doing its thing,” Bob says. “It does a great job getting the hard pack off and never forgets a spot like a person might. We’ve been very impressed with how clean the barns are.”

Bob also appreciated how simple the robot was to get up and running. “After messing with it for about 5 to 10 minutes, I was comfortable setting it to the specific needs of each barn. It’s really user-friendly.”

For Bob Fink and his team at Fink Family Farms, the Washpower robot didn’t just improve barn cleaning, it transformed it. With happier employees, cleaner barns, and major savings in labor and water, the investment paid for itself in more ways than one.