'Opening the barn doors': 360-degree tour of P.E.I. dairy farm

People can take a virtual reality tour of a Hunter River, P.E.I., dairy farm in a new online initiative designed to let Canadians know more about where their food comes from.

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The new 360-degree video of Crasdale Farms was posted by the Farm and Food Care group, a coalition that represents farmers and agri-business. 

It's mean to be showing the transparency of Canadian farms.— Kelly Daynard

"It's pretty amazing technology. And it's essentially a barn tour, farm tour without getting your boots dirty," said Kelly Daynard, the group's communications manager and the lead on this project. 

'Next best thing' to reality

The best way to view the video is using special virtual reality goggles, Daynard said. On a mobile device, users can move their device around to see different angles, while desktop computer users can click and drag. 

The video shows off the technology on Brian and Amber Craswell's farm, which has a computerized milking system that allows the cows to decide when they're milked. 

"In a perfect world we would take every Canadian in this country out to farms in person. But we know that that's not realistic so this is certainly the next best thing," Daynard said. 

If a cow's existence looks pretty good in the video — that's the idea. 

"These cows walk around freely, drinking, sleeping a lot and eating when they choose," the video's narrator intones. "They also enjoy being massaged by this motion-activated brush." The shiny black-and-white Holstein cows, fed every two hours, lounge on clean bedding.

'Transparency of Canadian farms'

"It's mean to be showing the transparency of Canadian farms. We're willing to film them and let you right inside them because we're really proud of our farm stories," Daynard said. 

You can check out the video and others on the website FarmFood360.ca.

"It's a great way to continue opening the barn doors so to speak and introducing Canadians to the farmers that produce their fabulous food," Daynard said, adding that they plan to film egg farms this spring. 

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