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Video tours demystify pork production

Photo: SDSU Extension

People everywhere can tour a state-of-the-art swine research unit thanks to video live-streaming. South Dakota State University swine specialist Bob Thaler says after a new swine unit was opened near the campus, a student began giving video tours.

“Just using cellphone, she can walk through our farrowing rooms, gestation, our finishing barns,” Thaler told Brownfield Ag News, “and have that live-streaming to a conference anywhere in the world.”

SDSU is partnering with the National Pork Board’s Operation Main Street program “to demystify how pigs are raised,” according to Thaler.

“A lot of people get the misconception that a lot of bad things happen behind the doors, because we won’t let people in our barns,” said Thaler. “It’s not because of that, it’s the risk to biosecurity.”

The SDSU swine teaching center facility features all phases of pig production and provides technology for a wide range of swine research. About a dozen video tours were conducted for various groups last year with a goal to conduct thirty to forty this year.

AUDIO: Bob Thaler

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