Miracle of Birth Center celebrates 25 years

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — Bridging gaps, fighting misconceptions and encouraging education are key goals for one of the state fair’s most popular free exhibits, and this year, it is celebrating its 25th anniversary: the CHS Miracle of Birth Center.

Since opening in 2001, the Miracle of Birth Center has remained focused on bringing consumers and producers together through education and outreach, said Dr. Mary Olson. Olson, who has been involved with the center since the beginning, is a large animal veterinarian and a co-chair of the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association committee that facilitates the event.

“We want people to understand that veterinarians work extremely hard at keeping animals healthy, as do farmers,” Olson said.

During the 12-day run of the Minnesota State Fair, over a million people step through the silver silo of the Miracle of Birth Center into not only a red barn, but also an unforgettable experience. In the early years, the concept was simple: give fairgoers the rare chance to see an animal being born. Today, the exhibit is as much about farming and behind the scenes as it is about the moment of birth.

“We don’t try to persuade people as far as what they like: farming is farming,” Olson said. “We have the ability in Minnesota for people to choose right now how they want to eat, and we certainly support all kinds of farming and try to point out the differences in them so people can make the choices that work best for their families.”

Guests can witness the live births of cows, pigs, sheep, goats, ducks and chickens. They can ask volunteers from the MVMA, the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine and the FFA any questions they may have about veterinary care, the livestock industry or farming.

Olson said the center continues to evolve, stressing that even when farms get big, humans are still integrally involved.

“Every year, we try to make it better,” Olson said. “We want to best represent and bring a Minnesota farm to the state fair so that the people of Minnesota have a chance to see what farmers do, what veterinarians do, what animals look like and all the fun things that go into the farm.”

Each shift, four licensed veterinarians and four veterinary students monitor animal health and engage in one-on-one conversations with visitors regarding practices and animal welfare. Fair staff handle logistics and the space while FFA members, also known as “barnies,” do the daily work of feeding, bedding, cleaning and visiting with fairgoers.

Specialized veterinarians in swine, sheep and cattle health have joined the center as well, providing more in-depth knowledge; they might explain why a dairy calf is raised separately from its mother, how manure is recycled on modern farms or what terms like “cage-free” and “enriched cages” for chickens mean.

Throughout its 25 years, the center has welcomed millions of visitors — and plenty of newborns. Olson estimates more than 300 calves have been born, along with dozens of lambs each year, seven to 10 litters of piglets annually and too many chicks to count. This stream of new life keeps crowds pressed along the railings year after year.

“We came to see the babies,” Jessica Curto said. “We live out in farm country, but we hardly get to stop and interact with the animals.”

Curto, her husband, Eric, and their twins visited from Lonsdale, Minnesota, hoping to make new memories while also exposing their children to agriculture and livestock.

“Our kids can now see them up close versus from the car,” Curto said. “It’s one thing to read books, but it’s a different experience to see animals that close and to know they’re living and breathing, and they need care just like people.”

While the center is a modern staple of the fair, its beginnings were uncertain and far from easy. At the start of the millennium, Olson was serving on the Large Animal Public Relations Committee at MVMA with Dr. Florian Ledermann, who first produced the idea for the center.

“I wasn’t terribly excited,” Olson said. “I thought veterinarians really don’t stand around for six or eight hours and watch a normal birth. We’re fire engine type people; a farmer calls us, we rush to the scene of the action, we help the calf get born and then we’re back home, hopefully getting at least a partial night’s sleep.”

Yet, Ledermann, inspired by similar exhibits in Kansas and Michigan, was determined to find a way for the agriculture community and large animal veterinarians to communicate with a growing urban population.

“Ledermann said, ‘No, this would be an opportunity to teach people much more about veterinary medicine than just having a cow birth or sheep birth,’” Olson said. “So, at that point in time, I said, ‘Florian, if you think this is good, I’ll certainly be happy — let’s do it.’”

Working with Steve Pooch, the education manager of the state fair at the time, Olson and Ledermann met with Jim Ertl, of the FFA, to make the idea feasible.

“It was Mr. Pooch who thought and realized that veterinarians were not going to be able to do this exhibit by ourselves,” Olson said. “(Ertl) was, at that time, the executive director of the FFA, and he was instrumental in gearing up the FFA group and getting crews on board to take care of the animals.”

Despite the decades of success, not every moment inside the Miracle of Birth Center is picture‑perfect; animals get sick and births do not always go according to plan. That first year, Olson said she remembers meeting with an older woman, whose eyes were bright with excitement as she came up to the pen.

“I said to her, ‘I know you think this is wonderful now, but what happens when we deliver a dead calf in front of people?’” Olson said. “‘This is a farm, and we’re not going to be able to predict everything, and it will happen.’”

Instead of turning away, Olson said the woman looked her straight in the eyes and shared that she had delivered twins who did not survive, and the birth center needed to continue.

“Every challenge that we have, I have this woman saying she went through a very difficult time of her life, and yet, these things are important for us to share as human beings together in this world,” Olson said.

Two and a half decades later, Olson still thinks about that conversation when she walks through the barn, highlighting its significance and impact for each person who enters through the silo.

“It’s a wonderful learning experience, and I hope that it’s able to continue with all of us working together for the health and safety of everybody — animals as well as people,” Olson said.