South Dakota Ag Connection - Swine Education and Research Facility Grand Opening Oct. 1

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Swine Education and Research Facility Grand Opening Oct. 1
South Dakota Ag Connection - 09/22/2016

The Department of Animal Science at South Dakota State University welcomes the public to a Grand Opening celebration for the new South Dakota State University Swine Education and Research Facility on Oct. 1. A social and tours of the facility begin at 10:30 a.m. The program and dedication will be held at noon, followed by a pork barbecue at 12:30 p.m. The facility is located at 2221 Medary Avenue, Brookings, SD, north of the SDSU Animal Science complex.

"Our new Swine Education and Research Facility is designed to not only benefit students, faculty, and stakeholders, but to serve as an invaluable resource for educating the public about modern pig production," says Dr. Joe Cassady, SDSU Animal Science Department Head. "This new facility is truly of regional significance as is evident based on the support from producers in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa."

Construction of the new facility was made possible by a nearly unprecedented show of regional support and collaboration. The South Dakota Pork Producers Council, Minnesota Pork Board and Iowa Pork Producers Association all contributed to the project, and were joined by many others from Minnesota and South Dakota. The project also received funding support from private financial commitments made by individuals, families, organizations and businesses in South Dakota and surrounding states. An allocation of $2.03 million in state-appropriated funding was made, in addition to $1 million allocated by the South Dakota Board of Regents from the Higher Education Facilities Fund, helping to bring the project to fruition.

The facility is designed to host teaching, research, Extension and outreach activities. A 50- seat classroom, observation corridor, gestation room, farrowing rooms, boar room, physiology room, and surgery suite provide opportunities for many different types of instruction and research. "The observation corridor is a unique feature which will better enable us to educate the general public about modern pig production," Cassady explains.

The Swine Education and Research Facility also includes two, 1,200-head wean-to-finish barns. One of those barns is located adjacent to the gestation and farrowing building near campus. It includes four rooms designed to hold 300 pigs per room. Two of the rooms are equipped with small pens to facilitate nutrition research. The other two rooms are equipped with 20 pens per room which have heated and cooled concrete floors. The second wean-to-finish barn is located 12 miles south of Brookings. That barn includes 52 pens with a capacity of 25 pigs per pen.

"The number of students pursuing Animal Science degrees has more than doubled in the past 12 years," Cassady says. "These state-of-the-art facilities are equipped to provide students with the hands-on learning experiences that will best prepare them to pursue careers in the swine industry. Both students and employers have communicated the need for a hands-on educational experience in swine production. This project would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts and generosity of our alumni, stakeholders, and friends."

The South Dakota State University College of Agriculture & Biological Sciences is one of the eight colleges that make up South Dakota State University. Like the university, the College serves a three-fold mission to teach, conduct research, and provide outreach via SDSU Extension to serve people in South Dakota, the nation, and the world. Learn more at the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences page.

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