Bob Kleinsasser, hog boss with the Suncrest Colony near Steinbach, MB, said things are going reasonably well on the production side with no issues and lots of pigs.
“But if the prices don’t improve, how much longer can you go on? It’s getting to be the point where at break-even, you can’t make a living,” said Kleinsasser.
He said the weanlings or Isoweans had no markets for four or five months, so they squeezed them through the colony system, but it’s crowding with no room for the pigs coming up.
“We sold 1,700 weanlings for $10 each and 700 for $13, which is a loss of 10 bucks a pig. The market hogs yield around $160, $165, depending on the weight,” said Kleinsasser. “It will pull us through, that’s it. So hopefully, the market will turn around, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
While COVID-19 dealt them several positive cases within the colony people population, the pig industry’s lack of movement helped clear up some animal disease issues. Without a doubt, COVID-19 helped because of fewer people moving from one barn site to another. In his opinion, it boils down to employee sharing, which spread most of the PED virus.
With the COVID-19 outbreak in Brandon, MB affecting some employees at the Maple Leaf Foods processing plant, some of its employees had Kleinsasser and other hog farmers sitting on the edge of their seats.
“If we don’t ship for a week, two max, it would back up our system causing issues with weaning and where to put the small pigs if the big ones don’t go,” added Bob.
“ We’re glad the plant remained open, it’s all figured out and blown over,” he said.
While union bosses called for Maple Leaf to close the plant, Health Canada and CFIA officials walked through that plant doing a thorough inspection announcing things are good. It impressed him how Maple Leaf handled things and keeping the employees apart and make sure everything works out in the end.
In the next article, Manitoba Pork GM Andrew Dickson details how the AGM discussion focused on a made-in-Canada hog price. Kleinsasser said that it needs much work and feels it still requires many people to do much work.
“So, I can’t say too much about it.”
The Suncrest Colony opened back in March 2016, firstly the first new hog barn in the previous seven years, an 800 sow farrow to 80 pounds using open group housing with 125 sows per group at 28 square feet per sow.
“I love the system, so impressed how it turned out,” he said. “It took several years to figure everything out.”
Taking advanced technology and learning the proper selection is vital because they’re in groups, and they fight a bit. As producers, they must be more careful about animal welfare and stuff like that.
When asked what are the key things that make that work for him, “Make sure they’re big enough, and they have to be. Usually, when they were in a stall, you could get away with not being as fussy on size. She’s got to be 300, 350 pounds when you breed the sow, and then I think after that, she’s gone.”
When visiting the full barn in 2017, training the sows and the barn workers were essential. Today Kleinsasser said it’s one of the easiest things. With two groups of 15 sows always training, it’s within 14 days, they’re ready to go. The kinks are out of that one, he said.
Suncrest Colony hog boss also changed the weanling time from 20, 21 days weaning age, and now it’s closer to 27, for sure, 26 days. For the sows, their primary time is between 21 and 26 days; they really can milk very well, and gained almost a kg and a half on weaning weights.
“I think the breed back and the overall sow, she’s more ready after 26 days than she is after 20,” he said. “And then hopefully we’ve cut the days to market by a week or so.”
Kleinsasser said overall, the benefit also improved the animal welfare and the work environment for the employees, is excellent. •
— By Harry Siemens
