The RVC's Contract Research Unit has a climate-controlled farm animal research facility.

Completed in 2006 as a facility for research on environmental perception, cognition, interaction and management of farm animals, this state-of-the-art, climate-controlled farm animal research facility is unique in its ability to control and monitor an animal’s environment.

The unit comprises ten small rooms and two large rooms, each equipped with a commercial climate controller to maintain and monitor its own individual environment and a fully automatic dry feed mixing and dosing system.

This enables automatic monitoring of:

• Air temperature
• Ventilation rate
• Airflow pattern and air speed
• Light intensity, light spectrum, photo-period
• Humidity, misting system

Automatic systems are also in place for:

• Pig and bird weighing
• Feeding and feed mixing