At the recent AGM of the Manitoba Pork Council much discussion centered on where is the hog industry going and how.

Mike Teillet, the manager of sustainable development with Manitoba Pork says they’re received the first applications under a pilot project that will allow the construction of new hog barns in Manitoba.

Going back to April 2015, the then NDP Manitoba government approved the “Pig Production Special Pilot Project Evaluation Protocol,” a plan under which pork producers in Manitoba can apply for permits to build new or expand existing swine barns. Teillet says the hope is to increase hog production to a level that will allow the processing plants in Manitoba to run at full capacity.

Teillet also says since the agreement began between the government and Manitoba Pork about a year and half ago, producers have expressed some interest, but more recently, that level is increasing in the number of people phoning and what appear to be quite serious enquiries.

“We’ve had several actual applications that have come,” he said. “As far as the types of operation, I think we’re going to see a mix. One is a feeder operation so I know we will definitely see some of those but, of course, you need the little pigs to feed into a finisher operation so we need feeders and sows to farrow. We haven’t seen any of the weanling type of operations yet but we expect we will.”

Teillet says Maple Leaf is currently running at about 70 per cent capacity, about a million pigs per year short of full capacity. To fill that need, depending on their size, the Manitoba hog industry will require at least 100 new barns within the next four to six years.

While regulations are stringent enough, and the tough times weeding out some good producers, the whole aspect of credit, investors if you like is still a huge hurdle to overcome.

Barry Watson, the Steinbach District Director with Farm Credit Canada says the bulk of loan requests for financing within the hog industry have come from operators looking to renovate existing facilities rather than build new facilities.

Watson says provincial pork organizations in western Canada are trying to stimulate interest in the construction of new hog finishing barns in response to the need among the processing plants for increased volumes of hogs to meet processing capacity. He says FCC is discussing with the industry to explore what to do to get some expansion and investment in new finishing capacity.

“We’re certainly aware the processors and the industry generally would like to get more hogs finished closer to our local markets,” said Watson. “As much as the opportunity is there, I would say that the activity level on financing requests at FCC is low. Most activity is more weighted towards renovations on existing facilities. In some cases, existing barns out of production have come back into production with some meaningful renovations before they put in hogs. The dollars involved can be relatively significant.”

FCC is still lending half a million to a million dollars plus on some barn renovations. Largely it’s the new hog handling infrastructure that goes in, the different penning and some of the different feed systems that just add to the efficiency and the proper treatment of those hogs. “We’re focusing on what can we do differently going forward and the financing world has a role to play in that,” he added. •

— By Harry Siemens