The strongest incentives for the slaughter industry to adopt automation technology relate to the drive for improved productivity through reduced labor.
Automation in the pig slaughter industry has mainly been adopted in regions with high labor costs such as Northern Europe. In New Zealand, the lamb slaughter industry has been progressive in developing and using automation to automate the slaughter process. Automation in beef slaughter is limited because of the complexity associated with handling of the biological variation.
Barriers for slaughter line automation include the high cost and complexity associated with the development of slaughter automation technology, combined with limited market size.