Back in mid-October producers met with industry partners in Lethbridge for the Alberta Livestock Expo. The two-day trade show had exhibitors from across Canada and the US. Chris Tokaruk, show organizer, was very pleased with the booth sales, sponsors and attendance. In fact he had to create a few extra booth spaces to fit in all exhibitors.
This year also featured a larger line up of speakers, Livestock Innovation Conference, covering pork/dairy and poultry on an array of topics. First up was Todd Thurman, Swine Insights International, from Texas. He shared his thoughts on how the population is declining, demographics are changing and how it will affect the ag sector. Bottom line, “Most countries are below replacement level fertility rates, except Africa and parts of the middle East,” stated Thurman.
He added, “Food exporting countries are increasing dependent on exports, across all areas (Fruits/Vegetables, Fish, Meat & meat preparations, dairy products & eggs, cereals. . . ).” Thurman concluded with his reasons for optimism, “ North American Agriculture will continue to be among the most competitive in the world – we have low cost of production/strong efficiency & productivity/natural resources and innovation.”
Thurman will be speaking at the Alberta Pork Annual General Meeting.
A highlight of the Alberta Livestock Expo is the Pork Quality Competition. This year 29 hogs from 27 farms were entered. Donating Colonies were: Albion Ridge, Armada, Big Bend, Blue Ridge, Crystal Springs, Delco, East Cardston, East Raymond, Elm Spring, Ewelme, Fox Valley, Gold Spring, Green Acres, Keho Lake, Kingsland, Lakeside, Little Bow, LivingStone, Neu Muehl, Prairiehome, Rockport, Spring Point North, Spring Point South, Standoff, Starbrite, Willow Creek and Wolf Creek.
The top five were 5th Big Bend, 4th Delco, 3rd Kingsland, 2nd Prairiehome and taking top honours Spring Point North.
Once again charity was the biggest winner of the day, the top five being auctioned off, with all proceeds going to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alberta. Corey French from Perlich Auction Mart helped with the live auction.
Winning bidders were: for 5th place Big Bend – Sollio Ag, 4th place Delco – Sollio Ag, 3rd place Kingsland –WAGS, 2nd Prairiehome – Santangelo Livestock and 1st place Spring Point North – Fortified Nutrition. With winning bids and carcass cooler sponsors an astounding $28,850 was raised for Ronald McDonald House.
Hillary Derksen, Community Engagement Officer, for Ronald McDonald House Charites of Alberta was in attendance for the auction and presentation. She offered sincere thanks and appreciation for the very generous donation. Derksen shared a eye opening statistic, “Nobody ever wants or expects to need our services. Yet 1 in 4 Canadians has stayed at a Ronald McDonald House or knows someone who has.”
The charity continued with a total 2658 kgs (5800+ lbs) of pork was donated to Lethbridge Food Bank and the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen.
In his closing comments Chris thanked all the sponsors. Including the Livestock Innovation Conference sponsors: Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Arbourdale, Boehringer Ingelheim, DelPro, FLL Feed Solutions, GEA, Hypor, Merck Animal Health, MyLivestock.ca, PigFlow, Prairie Livestock Veterinarians, Precision Veterinary Services, South West Vets, TTT Stock Co. and Western Ag Supply.
Carcass cooler sponsors: CBS Bio Platforms, DelPro, Fortified Nutrition, h@ms marketing services, Hypor, Maple Leaf, Nutrition Partners, Puroxi, and Topigs Norsvin.
Plus General sponsors: DelPro, AAP Advanced Ag Products, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Arbourdale, Boehringer Ingelheim, By-Oreg, Crocus Ag Web Services, FLL Feed Solutions, Fortified Nutrition, GEA, Grand Manufacturing, h@ms, Hypor, Merck, Maple Leaf, MyLivestock.ca, Nutrition Partners, PigFlow, Prairie Post, Prairie Livestock Veterinarians, Puroxi, South West Vets, Topigs Norsvin, TTT Stock Co., Western Ag Supply and Prairie Hog Country.
Chris added to save the date for the Alberta Livestock Expo October 15-16, 2025. •
— By Laurie Brandly
