Happy Easter. Yes I know by the time this issue hits the street and the web Easter has passed, but I’m typing it on Saturday of the Easter weekend. I do hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend with family and friends.

Included within in this edition is coverage from the Manitoba Swine Seminar. There were some good speakers from what I have heard, personally I was not there, but Harry was. Kudos to the committee for once again coming up with an informative agenda.

The sixth annual Cramer Livestock and Crop Production Expo was a great success. Producers came from Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba. Exhibitors were pleased with the traffic of the one day show. Doug and Kelly were happy with both the turn out and the anticipation for the coveted Cramer Cup series. Congratulations to each of the winners in each of the categories. Smiley Colony took the top honours. But the real winner of the day was Kids Help Phone, the charity of choice for donations from the Sale of Champions. See page 29 for complete coverage.

The Canadian Ractopamine-free pork certification program as we have been told, will be more closely monitored in the future. As Dr. Brockhoff tells producers it is critical to sustain access to Canadian global markets.

Manitoba had some positive excitement recently with opening of the first new barn in seven years. A crowd gathered for the open house. Congratulations to Bob Keinsassuer and his team at Suncrest Colony. We at Prairie Hog Country wish them success under their new roof.

Please take the time to fill out our annual readership survey. They give us insight on what we are doing right and what we can improve on. I get calls, emails, text messages and feed back in person when at shows, seminars and meetings. But it is great to have a hard copy to back up our statements. I carry a copy of the previous year’s surveys with me all the time, so if anybody ever wants to question our results they can see for their own eyes.

Prairie Hog Country is very proud to be your top choice for hog news and information in Western Canada. Western Canada has been and will continue to be our focus. The survey can be found in the centre spread of this issue.

I do owe our readers an apology. I didn’t think the contest would be so hard in the February-March issue, matching the headlines to the covers. We had many entries for the contest as we do for every edition, however only a very few correct ones. The ones that had all the correct answers were folded and placed in a container which the winner was randomly selected. If you are wondering which ones you had right or wrong the answers are printed on page 40.

Even though it is only the end of March, when I’m penning this, plans are being made for the balance of the year. Check out Pork Chops for the list of all upcoming events. Next up is Alberta Pork Congress being held at Westerner Park June 15 & 16. If you have not booked your booth, bought your BBQ, lunch or banquets tickets contact the office today at 403.244.7821 or email info@albertaporkcongress.com

Remember to start grabbing your Kodak moments, for those of you too young to know what the means, taking pictures. The annual photo contest will be promoted in the June-July edition of Prairie Hog Country. I have been asked lately if people can submit them early, yes for sure. Send them on through. You can email them to (please ensure high resolution) hogcountry@shaw.ca or mail them to Box 5536 Leduc AB T9E 2A1.

As always I am only a phone call or email away. Prairie Hog Country, Box 5536, Leduc, Alberta T9E 2A1, 780.986.0962, fax 780.980.9640 or email: hogcountry@shaw.ca Talk to you in June.