Prairie Swine Centre Inc. is a non-profit research and technology corporation with expertise in three disciplines – behaviour, nutrition, and engineering. The mission of Prairie Swine Centre Inc. is “to be a centre of excellence in research, graduate education and technology transfer, all directed at efficient sustainable pork production.” The research program, with a decidedly near market emphasis, creates information to improve the financial position of pork producers by defining feeding and management systems that maximize net income. In addition, the Centre develops information to address issues and opportunities in environment and animal well-being. Prairie Swine Centre was originally built in 1980 by the University of Saskatchewan, and served as their swine research and teaching facility. At that time, the Centre consisted of two 100-sow and one 50-sow unit, each with its own gestation, and weanlings area, a small 240 head feeder barn and a small office/service building.

In 1987, the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Hog Marketing Commission joined forces to review the operations and function of Prairie Swine Centre. An advisory board of industry representatives identified the need for increased emphasis on grower-finisher research and the need to work more closely with the commercial pork industry.

The mandate of Prairie Swine Centre includes research, technology transfer and graduate education. The research program seeks to fill a niche identified by the pork industry, to conduct near market research that can be applied within a one to seven year time frame. Because of those close linkages with the commercial pork industry, technology transfer is emphasized as a central part of the Centre’s operation.