The Prairie Swine Centre receives $1.9 million in funding over five years
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Research into livestock and forage recently received $7.5 million in funding in Saskatchewan.
Representatives from the Governments of Saskatchewan and Canada announced the funding through Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Development Fund (ADF).
The announcement includes $1.9 million in funding to the Prairie Swine Centre (PSC) over five years.
The funding “contributes to the Prairie Swine Center carrying out its mandate to generate practical research results for the swine industry in Saskatchewan,” said Murray Pettitt, CEO of PSC.
PSC staff will use this core funding to continue their work in four areas: nutrition, engineering, ethology and knowledge transfer and translation, said Pettitt.
“Nutrition is focused on improving the nutrition and immune system status of the swine through different feeding strategies. The engineering program does research investigating the equipment and environment both inside and outside of the barn and is really looking at ways to improve the environment for the betterment of both the animals and the people who are in the barn. The ethology program investigates ways to ensure the best animal welfare by learning more about and taking into account the animal’s behaviour,” he told Farms.com.
“Then we have our knowledge transfer and translation arm of the company, that's really the agriculture extension part. So, we generate our research results, and then (this part of the company) will turn that into products for the Saskatchewan industry, whether it's newsletters or articles in our annual report or on our website.”
This type of funding also helps attracts funding for the PSC from other industry partners in Saskatchewan and other provinces, said Pettitt.
Srdjan Stepic;\iStock\Getty Images Plus photo