By Bruce Cochrane
Next week, from Tuesday to Thursday, visitors to the University of Manitoba's Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre will have the rare opportunity to watch the birth of baby pigs.
The Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, located on Highway 75 about 10 minutes south of Winnipeg, was opened about four years ago to provide the public the opportunity to learn about how food moves from the farm to their plates.
Myrna Grahn, the manager of the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, says the birth of the baby pigs is always a highlight.
Myrna Grahn-University of Manitoba:
We have 4 windows at our centre that look into a hog barn which normally is not accessible to the anyone from the general public because of the high biosecurity in raising hogs in the industry, so it's really nice to be able to show and explain to families, and children, and school groups what's happening.
As we take a school group through and we start off showing them the boars and then the sows that are pregnant and then all of a sudden you'll hear, when you get to the window with the baby pigs, "oh, look at the baby pigs" and it's so exciting.
The children crowd around that window and they all want their chance to be able to see them and watch them.
So this is a fabulous opportunity for families, for children to be able to see not only the baby pigs being born. They're born every 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, it's pretty much like clockwork, so we know when we're going to have the birth of piglets here at the centre.
But also, if you're not here even that week of August 18, you can come the following weeks and you'll see as the pigs are growing and then as they move to the nursery. When they're separated from their moms, you'll see them get bigger, so there's a number of stages that you'll be able to see the baby pigs which normally the general the public would never have that opportunity.
For more information on the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre and the special events scheduled for this summer visit FFDC.ca.
Source: Farmscape