For the second year in-a-row the Prairie Swine Centre held its annual producer meeting online.  
“In our continued commitment to bring you timely relevant information we will be hosting a webinar in place of our traditional producer’s meetings held in April of each year,” noted the PSC webpage.  “. . .  This year’s meeting highlights the Ethology research program, addressing topics of specific interest to producers.”  
Ken Engele, Manager Knowledge Transfer with PSC, said going online was a solution to the issue of the pandemic, and while not ideal it served the Centre and producers well.  
“Nothing’s better than getting together in-person for a meeting,” he said.  
But, when COVID guidelines made that impossible, taking the meeting online still allowed the Centre to transfer information about its program findings to producers, he added.  
“Part of our role is knowledge transfer, to get the information out – getting what we do out to the industry,” offered Engele.  
By going online, the potential audience was actually greater. Engele said it can be easier for barn workers to take the time to go online to hear a session, or two, than to find the time to travel to an actual meeting.  
“For the most part it (online) allows you to reach a wider range of people,” said Engele.  
While the potential to reach a broader audience exists, it is harder to get people to be online. In a normal year PSC does a series of three producer meetings, one in each of the three Prairie provinces, with about 200 attending the three.  
This year for the single online meeting April 22, there were roughly 70 registrants, said Engele.  
But more people may still see the presentations as they were recorded, and will be posted to the PSC website at www.prairieswine.com, said Engele.  
If there is a shortfall with online presentations, it can be creating a flow of information back from producers to the scientists, with people tending to ask less questions virtually, added Engele.  
Moving forward, Engele said the producer meetings are likely to “be a bit of a hybrid.”  

“I think everybody is going to go back to live meetings,” he said, reiterating that face-to-face creates better dialogue for knowledge exchange.  
However, providing a virtual component in the future is also likely, as it does help some attend that might not otherwise be able to.  
This year’s meeting included presentations on the following;  
• The effect of environmental enrichment on measures of disease resilience in swine, by Yolande Seddon, Ph.D.  
Results of how providing slat compatible environmental enrichments influenced measures of disease resilience in growing swine when exposed to pathogen challenge will be discussed. 
 
• Sow mortality- what is the situation in Canadian herds?, by Cristina Prade Ramos 
Sow losses are costly and reports indicate that sow death losses have increased in the past decade. Survey data has been collected in Canada to identify the major causes and solutions.  
• Infrared technology: A tool for measuring stress and improving pork quality, by Jennifer Brown, Ph.D. 
Infrared technology has become affordable in recent years and shows great promise for identifying sick or stressed animals on farm and at packing plants. 
It was at the end of January the CEO of Prairie Swine Centre, Murray Pettitt announced a five-year $1.9 million contribution to Prairie Swine Centre from Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Development Fund (ADF).
According to Dr. Pettitt “This funding will continue to create future opportunities for growth and to enhance the competitive position and sustainability of pork producers, and the pork value chain throughout Saskatchewan and Canada.” This funding will ensure the Centre will continue to deliver relevant and novel research results from our Nutrition, Engineering, Ethology and Knowledge Transfer programs. •
— By Calvin Daniels