Cam Dahl, the general manager of Manitoba Pork said the pork industry is enormous to the Manitoba economy with well over 14,000 jobs contributing in the range of $2 billion to the GDP every year. With continued growth and expansion, every new barn built in Manitoba, that’s new primary agriculture production. And it’s not just those jobs in the barns but the jobs at HyLife Foods at Neepawa and Maple Leaf Foods at Brandon and the growing value-added processing new bacon plant by Maple Leaf in Winnipeg adding 350 jobs that used to be in the United States are now in Winnipeg. Or the Topigs, one of the world’s largest genetics companies, is looking to Manitoba to establish some of their nucleus operations at Plumas.  
Dahl reinforced with delegates to the AGM of Manitoba Pork how communication is crucial for those in the hog industry to tell the real story of hog production and the economic benefits.  
“I’m learning more as I get older, just how important it is to communicate effectively. We need to talk with the public on the importance of what farmers are doing for animal welfare and how we’re addressing some of the environmental concerns.” 
Over 90 per cent of the manure produced in Manitoba gets injected below the soil and doesn’t runoff. This manure is organic nutrition that is valuable to grain producers and used in a way that ensures plants in the field use it.  
“And these are the kinds of conversations and discussions we need to have with Manitobans.” 
However, the hog industry has many empty positions limiting production increases with about 50 per cent of the jobs going begging.  
Dahl said 50 per cent or higher of the operations in Manitoba are short-staffed all up through the line in processing plants, not enough drivers for trucks, short on veterinarians, etc. Labour is probably the biggest constraint to the ongoing growth and even the industry’s financial stability. It’s a critical factor. 
Kevin Rasmussen, president of the Iowa Pork Producers, told the Manitoba Pork AGM Iowa imports about 2 to 2.5 million pigs out of Canada a year, most of those coming from Manitoba and mostly isoweans.  
“We love your pigs, the high, high-quality pigs, and they perform very well for us. Feed them some good Iowa corn and they’ll make great pork chops for the rest of us to consume.” 
What were the reasons for that? 
The labour shortage is also affecting hog production in the U.S. Canada used to pay higher federal wages than the hog sector in the U.S. but that has changed. The fact is there are just not enough bodies to go around.  
“We seem to go to Washington, D.C. every year and ask for legal immigration. We want everything to be legal. These people want to come to our country to live here. It’s a better lifestyle than where they are. They can make more money than right now, but we have to have a legal way of coming.” 
Rasmussen said government and industry need to figure this out and do it right to provide them great jobs and a high standard of living to contribute to their communities and make their communities a better place to live. 
American hog production was down in 2021 over 2020, with some producers getting out because of a lack of a succession plan meaning no one there to take over and aging facilities.
“My buildings were 30 plus years old and it was, things are progressing, and when they’re progressing, it’s natural. But things don’t last forever, so we’re okay with that.” 
Shackle space in processing plants is a big challenge; packer contracts guarantee a place to kill the pigs.  
“The last thing you want is a producer with market weight pigs and there’s no place for them. It’s a real tough situation. So, we like to have guaranteed shackle space.” •
— By Harry Siemens