By Bruce Cochrane.
General Manager of the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba says the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair brings that farm to those who normally wouldn't have the opportunity to visit a farm.
The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, which kicks off Monday in Brandon, has been running for over 100 years and received Royal designation in 1970.
Ron Kristjansson, the General Manager of the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, says the a big part of the winter fair is agricultural education.
Ron Kristjansson-Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba:
We have a huge lineup of entertainment and education for the entire family.
We are an agriculture society so a big part of what we do is agriculture related.
Being an ag society in the city of Brandon. one of our focuses is to be a link between the urban and rural and provide education opportunities for people to learn how their food is grown and where it comes from, to meet the actual farmers that produce the food, that grow the crops, grow the animals.
We work with a lot of the commodity groups. we have a large ag education area with an ag action stage that has some interactive type presentations that are both educational and entertaining, so a big agriculture focus.
We've got, the dairy producers are here with milking cows and there's pigs here for them to look at and cattle and chickens and of course horses everywhere.
You can see the animals and talk to the people that look after the animals and learn what it's about to raise animals.
Kristjansson says that is an area of the fair that is always busy, typically attracting young families with children that want to learn about animals.
He notes a lot of visitors are one or two generations removed from the farm and don't have an opportunity to go to the farm, so the winter fair brings the farm to them.
Source: Farmscape