Agriculture Diploma students from the University of Manitoba recently had a chance to tour a number of processing sites in the Pembina Valley.

The tour included a stop at the Tropi Gelato facility in Altona, which produces all-natural gelato. The company was started by immigrants from Venezuela and has used the dairy plant at the U of M to do some research and develop their product.

Michele Rogalsky is the director of the School of Agriculture.

"We stress experiential learning and we try to get out of the classroom as much as possible," she said. "For us it's important that our students interact with industry leaders, be exposed to innovative operations and we're also looking at diversification and expanding from on-the-farm production to also looking at processing."

Other stops on the tour included Southland Potato (Winkler), Covenant Vegetable Growers (Winkler), and Red River Grain (Altona).