A great ride, but it is time to leave the race says the retiring chair of Manitoba Pork Council.
At the annual general meeting of Manitoba Pork Council in Winnipeg in April, Karl Kynoch stepped down as chair after serving for 11 years.
Kynoch says there are a number of challenges for the industry going forward.
“I think going forward this industry will be viable. There’s a lot of challenges going forward; filling plant capacity, we don’t have enough pigs to stay viable or competitive with some of our counterparts with the bigger plants,” he said. “Our building costs for infrastructure here is way higher than our U.S. counterparts, so we’re going to have to figure out a way to get more competitive with the cost of infrastructure, the cost of feeding, and how do we get the labour into this industry.”
Kynoch says 2014 was a very good year for producers, allowing them to recoup some of the losses from previous years.
“One thing I’d like to see in the future is a pork grading system that would work similar to beef,” he added.
The MPC board selected George Matheson of Stonewall as the organization’s new chair.
Matheson says, moving forward, increasing
the province’s pork production to match processing capacity and creating a hog industry income   stabilization program will be among his top priorities.
Matheson, who joined Manitoba Pork as a delegate in 1997, says, in light of the Manitoba government’s relaxation of restrictions on new hog barn construction, his priorities will include increasing pork production in the province and developing an income stabilization program.
“We do have a shortage of hogs in this province in relation to our processing plants, most notable Maple Leaf at Brandon would like to process 90,000 hogs per week,” he said. “They’re short that number by 20,000 every week so, we need another million hogs produced in this province every year.”
The new chair thinks they need to get the moratorium completely lifted and getting some kind of stabilization from the government in regards to cash flow and security when a producer is trying to achieve financing for a hog barn.
“If we could get those pieces in place, get those barns constructed I can’t help but think that there are farms in this province that would be a good fit for a finishing hog barn,” said Matheson. “While the industry has faced a range of challenges including, Circovirus a few years ago, and more recently PED, trade issues, most notably U.S. Country of Origin Labelling, and labor shortages, hog farming is no less viable than any other segment of agriculture.”
Following the conclusion of MPC’s AGM, the board of directors elected its 2015 executive.
George Matheson, a Stonewall-area producer, chair of Manitoba Pork a long-time contributor to the development of the hog industry in Manitoba, beginning as a delegate to Manitoba Pork in 1997, serving as a Director from 2006 to the present, and participating on numerous industry and agricultural commodity committees. One of George’s main goals as chair is to ensure that pork production remains a sustainable industry in Manitoba.
Vice-chair Rick Bergmann of Steinbach and executive member Scott Peters of Randolph also re-elected. The board elected director Rick Préjet of Notre Dame de Lourdes as an executive member for the first time.
Newly elected to the board directors-at-large Lyle Peters of Randolph and Calvin Penner of Argyle. Edward Stahl of Grass River Colony is the director for the North Star Producers district.
Other Directors on the Board are James Hofer of Hutter Schwein District, Glen Gratton of Maple Leaf Agri-Farms, and Claude Vielfaure of HyLife.  •
— By Harry Siemens