Prairie Swine Centre Officially Opens State of the Art Sow Research Unit

June 18, 2008 — 

The Prairie Swine Centre (PSC) officially opened its newly renovated sow research unit located at Floral, Saskatchewan on Tuesday (June 10) with an open house. Next week, following a fumigation, cleaning and final equipment check the first pigs will be moved in.

The Prairie Swine Centre is one of several University of Saskatchewan (U of S) research facilities. Its primary focus is animal nutrition, animal behaviour and engineering.

The approximately $2 million upgrade replaced infrastructure constructed by the university more than 25 years ago.

The original facility, built in 1979, consisted of four main buildings including two 100 sow barns, a small 50 sow barn and a grow finish barn. "Basically what we did was we undertook a complete replacement of our gestation, lactation and breeding areas and gilt development areas; consolidated what was previously in four barns into a single barn," says Prairie Swine Centre outgoing president and CEO Dr. John Patience.

Source:
Farmscape Article 2877 June 14, 2008