This fall, staff and students won’t be the only ones reaping the benefits from the new Swine Education Centre at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus.
Source: University of Guelph
The state-of-the-art facility, which will be 6,600 square feet, will be open to the public as well.
Through funding from the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) and Ontario Pork, the $500,000 project will be one of the most advanced centres in the country, according to the Thursday release.
The electronic sow feeding system, housing flexibility, ventilation system and bio-secure viewing area all help to make this facility cutting-edge, according to Ken McEwan, director at the Ridgetown Campus.
Diploma students in the agriculture and veterinary technology programs will use the centre, McEwan said in an interview with Farms.com this morning.
“This centre will help students learn the most recent innovations in pork production and animal welfare, while providing insights and expertise to innovative and hard-working farmers and pork producers,” Malcolm Campbell, vice-president (research) at the University of Guelph, said in the release.
McEwan echoed the importance of the facility for the broader swine industry.
The Swine Education Centre “will allow the public to go in and look at the production practices that commercial agriculture uses,” said McEwan.
“They’ll be able to see the gestation area, the farrowing area, the weaner pigs – it’s those sorts of things that will allow the public to understand and to think about food production.”
Interested in taking advantage of this learning experience? Take a look at the academic programs offered at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown Campus.