Live Swine Display Proves Most Popular
MANITOBA, CANADA - Officials with the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre report the windows that allow the public to see directly in the University of Manitoba's swine research facility have proved to be among the facility's most popular exhibits, Bruce Cochrane writes.The Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, located at the University of Manitoba's Glenlea Research Station, home to the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment, was officially opened just over one month ago.
The facility features a variety of displays and interactive exhibits designed to tell the story where our food comes from and how it gets to our plates.
Guy Robbins, the centre's visitor services manager, says since the opening the centre has hosted several school tours, seniors groups have come through, there's been some foot traffic and the hope is to build up to over two to three years to 30,000 visitors per year.
Guy Robbins-University of Manitoba
Our audience is pretty general.
We're wanting to attract the general public especially families, also the education, especially school groups and also the general agricultural and food service industry.
The most popular displays, I guess, are the windows into the hog barn where people can actually see the live hogs.
Also a lot of the hands-on interactives have proved to be very popular.
For instance we have the games that people can play, we have a tractor cab, we have an ultrasound scanner, also a grocery scanner so there's a lot of hands-on things.
A lot of people are attracted to different things depending on their age and their interest but basically I think number one would be the hogs themselves and then a lot of the hands-on things have proved very popular.
Mr Robbins encourages anyone interested to visit the centre to learn more about their food and issues such as food security.
For more information on the Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre, please click here.