The Smith farm at Argyle, MB has been in the family since 1953. Originally a dairy farm, the Smiths began raising pigs on their quarter section near Argyle, Manitoba in 1967. During the 80s and 90s, as pork production became concentrated in huge hog barns across Manitoba and the rest of North America, the Smith farm stayed small, mixed, humane, and environmentally friendly.
Today the farm is home to about 250 to 300 pigs, not to mention about eight cows, 80 chickens and horses.
Ian Smith, who took over from his parents, says his quarter section farm is truly a mixed farm, maybe the last one left in Manitoba, no off-farm income, no pensions, but where life is good.
“On this farm you will not find the animals confined in two foot by seven foot stalls, nor will you find pigs living on straw-less, slatted metal or concrete floors above a pool of their own waste which is how most large hog operations are these days,” said Smith. “We grow our own barley with green clover and as a result you get a wholesome feed, a richer soil and a cleaner environment. Which in turn produces NATURAL PORK, a healthier meat product.”
Since 1999 the Smith farm has held a Canadian Quality Assurance Certification. To meet the CQA requirements, a veterinarian comes out every third year followed by two years of the farm submitting production records to the Vet. If the CQA Vet recommends CQA validation he sends the paperwork to the Manitoba Pork Council for approval. The truly mixed farmer started selling sides of pork in the fall of 2003. In early 2004, he had the farm inspected, passing certification by the Winnipeg Humane Society.
“I am proud to be producing the most consistent, highest quality natural pork in the industry,” said Smith. “To be honest, there was nothing the Humane Society could find that I had to change because it was the old fashioned way. They understood I had to use farrowing crates, and explained to them the purpose of the farrowing crates of not crushing the little pigs. They had to change their thought pattern realizing the need for those crates. I don’t have stalls for the sow, they are outside with the boars.”
He now uses A.I. breeding but I do still have boars. The AI has helped by improving the genetics and increasing my litter size, meaning I’m selling more pigs from the same number of sows.”
Smith describes his three-field rotation on his one quarter section farm. He has three fields canola, barley, and summer-fallow, two 45 acre big, and one 55 acre field. The summer-fallow field, meaning not planted for one year, will go into canola the following year, and the canola field this year becomes barley the next year.
He uses solid manure, and doesn’t use a pit system and cleans out the straw-based barns twice a day taking the manure to the field every day and works it into the soil when preparing it for seeding the following spring.
“My fertilizer bill is virtually nothing for the canola field because I put nitrogen back in and canola takes lots of nitrogen,” said Smith. “But of course I’m losing a crop on the fallow each year – it works for me because it is the area I put my manure on every day.” The key is it works for him.
He has the neighbouring New Haven Colony swath and combine his canola, haul it to the elevator the same day, sell it the next, and never puts any into his own storage.
“I don’t even seed it because I cultivate the field I want my canola to go on, the fertilizer company comes in and broadcasts the seed, puts on the fertilizer, I harrow it twice and it’s ready to go,” says Smith.
With his barley, he works the field, the same company adds the fertilizer, and then seeds it with his own press drill.
The chickens, about 80 laying hens, one customer would take 40 dozen a week if he had them and at $2.75 a dozen, it gives him some grocery money that helps out but the pigs are his main income.
As mentioned, he started selling online picking up the idea from another beef producer selling beef online when the BSE hit the cattle industry back in 2003.
Smith has over 800 customers listed in his binder. Although some have died, but it is safe to say he has about 300 customers that regularly buy from him. He sells to two stores, Crampton’s Market in Winnipeg, and Good and Natural, a health food store in Steinbach. They are the only outlets besides the private people he sells to.
He works with about 25 sows, and sells about 250 – 300 finished pigs a year. What he doesn’t sell privately, he sells to Maple Leaf at Brandon, the only option he has for now.
From the day Smith started in 2003, he’s never dropped his price whether the hog market drops or not. “When I’ve sold to people my price is this, it will never drop it may go up because of costs going up for me,” he said. •
— By Harry Siemens
