South Dakota State University has finished a US$1.8 million expansion of its Swine Education and Research Facility, adding rooms that raise wean-to-finish capacity by 50 percent and take the total to about 1,800 head. The building, open since 2016, is used for student training, producer outreach and production research, and the enlarged version should be fully running by mid-October.

"Our swine team really focuses on production research," said Thaler, the SDSU Extension swine specialist quoted by Farms.com. "They want to answer the immediate questions of producers. And so basically, by increasing that wean-to-finish capacity by 50%, we're going to be able to do a lot more nursery and finishing trials."

What is unusual is who paid. South Dakota's corn, soybean, pork and livestock organisations covered the full cost between them, as many of the same groups did for the original barn a decade ago. "This is a wonderful example of cross-commodity cooperation," said DaNita Murray, executive director of SD Corn, at the ribbon-cutting.

Jay Esser, president of the SD Corn Utilization Council, said the board backed the project with an eye to the future: pigs are a market for South Dakota corn and soybean meal, so research that keeps the state's pork industry competitive serves crop growers too.

The extra space lets researchers run more trials on feeding, management and new technology at commercial scale, and the university plans to keep using the facility for field days, presentations and other producer events.

Photo: SDSU

Source: Farms.com