Late in 2015, the Manitoba government introduced a new special pilot project permit evaluation protocol designed to allow the construction of swine barns in the province to resume under 11 new conditions.

In 2006 the Manitoba government banned building and expanding hog barns in 35 RMs; then in 2011, expanded that ban to the entire province starting a decline in hog production causing processing plants in the province to go without.

Mike Teillet of Manitoba Pork says the special pilot project permit evaluation protocol will allow new construction under 11 new conditions.

“One of the key ones, a 200 percent reduction in soil phosphorus limits,” said Teillet. “Right now the regulation allows for 180 parts per million of soil phosphorus buildup in soil, but the protocol lowers it to 60 parts per million for new barns, a significant reduction.”

The second new requirement has all new hog operations injecting or incorporating their manure within 48 hours. Thirdly, an additional manure sampling and testing requirement over and above what’s required now. Fourthly, they will require significantly more land for spread fields than before.

“We estimate up to or even more than twice as much land for spread fields as in the past. They will have to have enough land to spread at a one times phosphorus application rate. Even though they won’t be required to spread at that rate they will have to have enough land to be able to spread at that rate,” he said.

While not all the new requirements, those are some of the more important ones. In view of the 11 new requirements, Manitoba Pork has new detailed estimates for building new finishing spaces to give pork producers an idea of what they can expect in terms of cost.

Here is DGH Engineering’s detailed budget estimate to construct new hog finisher facilities under current market conditions, using typical 2,000 and 4,000 head finisher barns as models.

The total estimated cost of the 2,000 head finisher barn including all services, materials, equipment, labour, site development works and contingency is $1,242,444.00. This total cost translates into $621/per pig place. Separating out site development, earthworks utilities and contingency, the nominal construction cost of the facility is $51.55 per square foot for $480.90 per pig place. The project budget does not include any cost for land, considering the producer would build on an existing farm.

The total estimated cost of the 4,000 head finisher barn including all services, materials, equipment, labour, site development works and contingency is $1,983,810.00. This total cost translates into $495.95/per pig place. Separating out site development, earthworks utilities and contingency the nominal construction cost of the facility is $48.86 per square foot or $398.29 per pig place. Again, no land costs.

MP’s general manager, Andrew Dickson says the goal of the project is to provide a detailed cost estimate that pork producers could use as a starting point when considering the construction of finishing spaces.

Dickson tells people considering building a new hog barn to contact the DGH Engineering for assistance in navigating the permitting process. The documents provide producers a starting point from which they can estimate the real cost of building a hog barn.

He asks those interested to read the posted documents on Manitoba Pork’s web site and he encourages anyone interested in constructing a new barn to contact Manitoba Pork for information and assistance in working through the permitting process. •

— By Harry Siemens