Swine Center

The new 24,000-square-foot, $5.6 million center at Kentland Farm houses a small-scale swine production and research facility, classrooms, boar housing and gestation facilities, and rooms for farrowing, nursery, and finishing. The swine industry in Virginia sees more than $58 million in cash receipts annually and the new facilities will help grow that economic impact as research and outreach to support that sector. In addition, pigs are used to study human health and well-being. Studies that help develop more effective infant formulas involve neonatal pigs. Pigs are also outstanding models to study heat stress, as pig and human physiology are closely aligned.