Organizers of the Brandon Hog and Livestock Show said the success of the 2017 edition indicates a bright future for hog production in Manitoba. The one-day event on Dec 15, the Brandon Hog & Livestock show brought pork producers and their service and equipment suppliers together.

One of the organizers, Ron Bazylo said the attendance at this year’s event suggests the pork sector is very stable.

“We have over 135 exhibitors, way up from just over 100 in previous years. The exhibitors show everything from the equipment they have to offer, even including some vehicles. People involved in the feed industry, animal health products, various things like insurance, and a huge array of different displayers on hand,” said Bazylo.

In the Pork Quality Competition, this year’s winners, first place Waldheim Colony at Elie, second place Barickman Colony at Cartier, and third place went to Sky View Colony at Miami.

Judge Bob Mckay said when judging and assessing pork quality there are three critical factors, color, texture, and marbling.

“Color’s important because it’s the first thing the consumer sees when they go to the grocery store. Studies show where you put dark pork and light pork in a display case, consumers will take the light pork because they think it’s from a younger animal, and they won’t take the dark pork because it’s from an animal that’s much older,” said McKay. “Well, they’re all killed at the same age. Pale pork means that it’s going to ooze moisture, it’s going to cook more on drying, and it’ll be very tough to eat. So it’s very undesirable.”

The judge said marbling is there because it makes meat taste good. Each pork cut needs a little bit: Without some marbling, it’s like eating cardboard. The texture is important because if it’s loose and wet, that means the cell membranes are breaking down, and it’ll cook out very dry. So those are the big three. Mckay said the quality of this year’s pork is probably the worst year for color for a lot of years.

“I have never seen a situation where the average score on 32 hogs was 1.3 points out of 10 for color. 1.5 out of 10 for marbling,” he said. “Texture was good, it was 9.1 out of 10, but the color and the marbling just weren’t there and it’s a flashback to what we saw in the early 1980’s. We’ve gone too lean and damaged our carcasses. So a lot of work needs doing on restoring our meat quality.”

When asked how do these quality criteria correlate with what the consumer is looking for in the meat case, Mckay said if one asks the consumer what they want, they don’t want any fat on the meat.

“They want pork devoid of marbling, relatively inexpensive that they can eat. The trouble is, if you take the marbling out, people are not going to like it,” said the judge. “What we see with our eyes, is not what we desire with our palettes, and if we want a nutritious meal of pork, you need some marbling; you can’t have membranes breaking down, and cellular fluid coming out. You just can’t. It’ll dry out, and it’ll taste awful.” Mckay had a message for today’s breeding companies.

“Carcass evaluation is always a good idea. If we ignore it, we’re going to have expensive dog food, ’cause nobody is going to eat it. We export the bulk of our pork. If we’re producing a product that people don’t want, they’re not going to buy it. That’s the risk.”

The winning Colonies donated portions of their money to charities of their choice with first prize going to the St. Bonfire Hospital, second to Children Hospital in Winnipeg, and third going to Boundary Trails Hospital near Winkler.

The committee from Brandon Hog & Livestock Show wish to thank all the attendees, exhibitors and sponsors. See you in 2019. •

— By Harry Siemens