For weeks, the children patrons of the Colfax-Perry Township Public Library have been anxiously awaiting the AMVC Piglet Storytime on Wednesday, June 19. Amongst the rainstorm on Wednesday evening, over 50 people traveled to the Colfax-Perry Township Public Library basement to hear a pig farm story and get the opportunity to pet a piglet.
The concept for an AMVC piglet day at the local library came earlier this year. AMVC Management Services, a diversified swine management company headquartered in Iowa, recently added a sow farm to their system just outside of Colfax and wanted to give the local community an opportunity to learn more about pigs. The Colfax-Perry Township Public Library was a great partner in bringing the program to life.
The evening started with the children sharing what they knew about pigs. AMVC public relations coordinator, Alicia Humphrey, led the discussion on what pigs eat and passed around samples of baby pig feed and sow feed. In addition, Humphrey read, Welcome to our Farm, a children’s non-fiction book describing what a field trip to a pig farm looks like. The book shared educational messages about animal housing, care and nutrition.
After the story, the group was divided into smaller groups for different activities. Everyone got the opportunity to enjoy the Producers, Pigs and Pork coloring books and crayons provided by Indiana Pork. AMVC also brought two three-week-old piglets to the library to help bridge the knowledge gap for the children and give them a hands-on experience. Today’s modern swine farms raise pigs indoors to protect them from weather extremes, diseases and predators; therefore, many of the children had not seen a piglet in real life previously.
Katie Allen, children’s librarian at Colfax-Perry Township Public Library, was pleased with the success of the event, commenting, “This was a great turnout. For our normal Storytime programs, were get less than what came out today. The kids were really excited. The program did not disappoint.”
There were many parents in attendance who thought it was worth the trip to the library to have their children interact with a piglet. Rachel Sterrett of Battle Ground, Indiana, traveled over 25 miles to bring her children to the program, “I thought this event would be fun for them. It was a cute program. It was my children’s first time touching a pig.”
Her five-year-old daughter, Izzy, agreed and commented, “My favorite part was petting a pig!”
The piglets received a lot of attention and the children had fun.
AMVC Management Services, enjoys being apart of the communities where their farms are located and where their employees live. Gary Potts of Colfax, is the assistant manager at the nearby sow farm and came to library to help educate the kids. He was happy with the interactions, saying, “It was great to see the kids’ curiosity and excitement for pigs.”
AMVC takes pride in educating the next generation about pig farming and being a local resource. By the end of the evening, all of the kids in attendance, proudly wore AMVC pig themed stickers that read, “I saw a pig today!”
Andy Best of Lebanon, brought his two-year-old son, Bryson, and his three-year-old daughter, Emmagrace, to the event and shared, “This was great for little kids. It was an opportunity for those who did not grow up around livestock to get exposed to it. Having them understand where we get our food is important.”
At the conclusion of the program, AMVC Colfax donated children’s non-fiction books about piglets to add to the library’s collection. The library did not previously have a non-fiction pig book section and were grateful for the donation.
AMVC owns and manages AMVC Colfax, a 5,000 head breed to wean sow farm in Clinton County. AMVC manages five sow farms in Indiana and oversees a total of 145,200 sows across ten states.