Much has been made by many Industries over the past 15 years or more of the ‘agricultural knowledge gap’ that exists between urban and rural communities.
Marketers across many commodities often blame a lack of contact between city consumers and daily farm practices on their lack of confidence in committing to their purchase of certain food types.
Nationally, the pork Industry has gone some way in closing this gap through the website posting of a series of pig production case studies by Australian Pork Limited (APL). A virtual piggery tour posting also helps to demonstrate routine pig production practices used within Industry, having to step around the present day restrictions often placed on physical farm visits.
In South Australia, Pork SA is active in educating secondary school students with its support of the Pigs in Schools program, the Pig Club at Adelaide University and Pigs and People sessions delivered during the annual Royal Adelaide Show.
Amongst the myriad of other competing (and free) attractions on offer at the Show, a visit to the pig pavilion by non-farming Show-goers is probably their only opportunity to come close to seeing, hearing and smelling a live pig!
The Pigs and People program has been delivered within sow and litter pens during Show week for over 20 years. More recently sponsored by Pork SA using levy payer fund, the program is only made possible by the exhibition of sows with their litters by SA breeders.
The program’s lead Graeme Pope provides a verbal ‘step-by-step’ description of pig biology starting from the weaning of each sow’s last litter up to presentation of their current 1-3 week old litters.
Describing the weaning process, heat checks and mating, establishment and confirmation of pregnancy, sow management and litter growth through gestation, the farrowing process, teat order, piglet fostering, lactation and piglet care all get coverage, often with comparisons made between pigs and other farm animals more commonly encountered by city dwellers (sheep, cattle, horses).
So how effective is this program at attracting the non-farming public towards understanding more about pigs and the pork Industry?
The Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of SA surveyed over 1,000 Show-goers following the 2024 Show to determine their visitations to some identified Agricultural Areas and Favourite Competitions.
Of the 20 different competitions identified, pig judging was ranked 9th overall, with 17% of survey respondents confirming they had attended that competition, equal to dairy cattle judging but more popular than all other livestock competitions, except horses-in-action (show jumping).
Of the 12 identified agricultural area visitations, Pigs and People was ranked 6th overall with 40% of respondents attending, which was above beef cattle, sheep, exhibition dairy, horses in-stables and exhibition milking.
These survey results confirm the popularity of pigs, and the attraction of the (mainly) non-farming public to understand more about them, reinforcing the value of Pork SA’s investment in the Pigs and People program.
Read the article in Stock Journal 12/12/2024: Exposing People to Pigs