By Bruce Cochrane
The chair of Manitoba Pork's Public Relations Committee says the questions most of the kids that pass through the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair's "Thru the Farmgate" exhibit ask are how big will the pigs will get and how fast can they can run.
Manitoba Pork's re-designed "Pig Tails" display, which features the return of live pigs after a one year absence due to concerns related to PED, is once again part of the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair's Thru the Farmgate exhibit.
Scott Peters, the chair of Manitoba Pork's public relations committee, says it's all about education.
Scott Peters-Manitoba Pork:
I think it's great first of all to see the kids and the kids bringing their parents.
I know a lot of parents had said the kids said we have to go see the little piggies first.
The parents come here and they get educated by the people in the booth.
They'll see the live pigs in their pen.
Biosecurity is such a high point in hog barns now.
They can sort of see what we all have do and why they can't play with the pigs and why they can't touch them and why they can't walk around without being in a pen and things like that.
The kids always ask how big the pigs are and how fast they can run.
Those are the questions from the kids.
The parents, they ask which farm did these pigs come from, are they my pigs or where are they going after this, would they go to a finished facility after this or where would they go and things like that.
They will also see placards on the wall and in various places throughout the booth that explain what happens during the lifetime of the pig as it grows to maturity and then what happens after and what happens sort of even before.
There's just so much information in the booth that it's hard not to know what happens in a barn once you've walked through the booth.
Peters says the hog industry is a great place to work, with good people producing high quality safe food and those who visit the display get to see that first hand.
Source: Farmscape