The operations manager with the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre says, since the facility opened in the fall of 2011, the baby pigs have remained its most popular attraction.
The University of Manitoba’s Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre located on highway 75 south of Winnipeg features hands on displays and activities designed to explain the science involved in food production.
Operations manager Dr. Tracy Gilson says last year the centre attracted just over five thousand visitors with the majority of those being elementary school students from grade five to grade eight.
That is our target audience, that’s the group that is interested and wants to know about food production.
They’re learning it in school so we provide them the opportunity to come here and see some of the features.
I think probably our biggest feature is when we have the piglets.
While in the centre you can see into an operating swine unit and so you can follow the sows from the breeding portion through gestation to delivery of the piglets and then once the piglets have been weaned you can see them as well.
I think that’s probably the highlight, when we have baby pigs.
All the visitors seem to like those.
We also have other displays.
For example we have an enriched laying cage that people can see how hens are in a production system.
We don’t have hens in the cage but we do have the cage so they can see the different features.
We also have, upon request we can take individuals and tour the dairy barn.
They can actually go in and see our 52 head dairy cows.
They can’t see them being milked though because it’s usually at 4:00 o’clock in the morning so not too many people want to be out here at that time.
Dr. Gilson notes the centre is currently open from Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm and starting in April it will be open from Tuesday to Saturday.
For more on the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre visit FFDC.Ca.
