Despite the recently introduced additional 11-step program to apply for a permit to build a new hog barn in Manitoba in certain area, it will still take renewed confidence from the financial institutions and other investors to make it happen.

Ron Kostyshyn, Manitoba’s agriculture minister says a pilot project introduced last April offers the opportunity to build the barns required to meet the needs of the province’s processors for hogs while safeguarding the environment. In April, 2015 the Manitoba government approved the ‘Pig Production Special Pilot Project Evaluation Protocol’, a plan under which pork producers in Manitoba can apply for permits to build new or expand existing swine barns.

Kostyshyn speaking to reporters as part of Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon recently, said in partnership with Manitoba Conservation and Manitoba’s hog producers, the pilot product calls for a two cell manure storage system in place of the anaerobic digester philosophy to deal with nitrogen and phosphorus and other environmental safeguards.

“In partnership with Manitoba hog producers and the Department of Conservation and other stakeholders, we’ve seen some noticeable changes,” he said. “Concentration levels have been reduced in order to apply and there’s always the buffer zone of applications in designated areas from waterways and opportunities.”

The Ag minister thinks the most significant change is the concentration level and the number of acres required to distribute the manure in the appropriate fashion. The other thing very significant, working with the Manitoba hog producers and the agronomists of the world is proper soil testing monitoring of the phosphorus and nitrogen levels, keeping it all in sync to minimize the over saturation of the phosphorus and nitrogen level, in partnership with producers.

Kostyshyn says there is recognition that environmental sustainability is possible and, in talking with Manitoba’s hog producers, there is an interest in building new barns under the pilot project adding the next challenge is attracting the investment required to build new barns. When asked about the state of the hog industry in Manitoba over the last four years, he calls that a moving target.

“We know supply and demand plays into that, obviously with the COOL somewhat being on the radar screen right now, will that accelerate the price for hog production or hog prices in the province of Manitoba – I’m hoping it does,” said Kostyshyn. “Also we have to maintain the operations of the HyLife’s and Maple Leafs when we move into further hog production in Manitoba. We continue to work with labour forces, with employees down at Maple Leaf, but there is also a shortage of hog numbers to process.”

He hopes to see the province maintain 100 per cent operation of the Maple Leafs and continue to provide more jobs in the local market. In conversations with hog producers does he see any signs of new investment?

“We’ve had conversations with the Manitoba hog industries and they are out looking, researching for investors as barns, and putting in more hog operations,” said the Ag minister. “The realities as we all know that a lot of the hog barn infrastructure is getting up in age and the industry is talking to us, to investors, as to my understanding. So we’re hoping to see that continues to happen.”

Kostyshyn says price guarantees are always the driving force at the end of the day for the financial investors that they get a fair return on their investments.

“Now the opportunity and whether we will have more barns is I think just a matter of the hog industry working with other agencies to make it become a reality indefinitely,” he said. “With COOL in the background, I think that opens up another opportunity of movement of hogs whole or processed here in the province.”

On other matters, the Ag minister would like to see more added value in the province is one part of his accomplishments in the four years as Manitoba’s Ag minister, but are in the second phase of economic development.

So does the minister think the whole series of more stringent regulations stifling agriculture have actually hampered food production in this province? “I don’t think you should use the word hampered, but more the due diligence, environmental sustainability, and the Save Lake Winnipeg bill are there to do just that,” he said. “But I think there is an opportunity geographically throughout the province of Manitoba that can accommodate sustaining hog barns in the province, and still do it in a safe environmental manner in partnership for all of us.”

“At the end of the day, we appreciate the hog industry and we as government, will do anything we can to work with it, and provide some financial stability in the long run,” he added. •

— By Harry Siemens