By Bruce Cochrane.
The Special Events Coordinator with Manitoba Pork says the live pigs remain the most popular part of its Pig Tales display at the Red River Exhibition.
Manitoba Pork is represented at the 2016 Red River Exhibition as part of Touch the Farm with its Pig Tales display.
Laurel Lyons, the Special Events Coordinator with Manitoba Pork, says participation in events like the Red River Exhibition gives pork producers a chance to dispel any myths and expand the public's understanding of the industry.
Laurel Lyons-Manitoba Pork:
We redeveloped our Manitoba Pork display about 3 years ago so we've totally rebranded our Pig Tales display with new banners, new equipment, two new pens so we can have more pigs.
We've got 2 stations where we highlight a couple younger pigs and then a couple older pigs just to show the public how quickly the animals grow and how much of a difference 2 weeks in the life of a pig can make in their size.
We've been here with the new display for 3 years now.
This is our third summer.
We gear it to basically all age groups because that's who's visiting the exhibition.
There's a lot of messaging for children, there's a lot of messaging for adults as well.
We figure, while the kids are looking at the pigs through the Plexiglas, some of the adults can be reading some of the messaging that's around the pens and that pertains to the different stages of production which is what we take people through in the display.
As you come in we talk a little bit about biosecurity, followed by breeding and gestation.
We talk about the feed, the use of manure and we end the display with transportation and a grocery store.
Lyons says, thanks to the excellent weather, thousands of people passed through the Pig Tales display during the opening weekend.
The Red River Exhibition continues until Sunday.
Source: Farmscape