Farmscape for May 29, 2007 (Episode 2495)
Saskatchewan's largest swine producer reports the United States remains a viable alternative for Canadian hogs as Maple Leaf foods phases out its primary pork processing facility in Saskatoon.
With the Mitchell's Gourmet Foods hog slaughtering plant in Saskatoon scheduled for closure at the end of the month, Maple Leaf Foods will divert hogs contracted to that plant to its Brandon, Manitoba facility.
Meanwhile many operators who had delivered hogs to Saskatoon have made arrangements to ship their hogs to the U.S.
Big Sky Farms CEO Florian Possberg says his operation used to ship 40 loads of hogs per week to Mitchell's but, since Easter, only about two loads have gone to the Saskatoon plant.
Clip-Florian Possberg-Big Sky Farms
There really wasn't any increase in slaughter capacity in western Canada so there may be a few extra hogs going west, or there's certainly a number of hogs that went to Brandon and, as Maple Leaf had promised, they would make room for those that they had under contract and I suspect their extra hogs then probably went south.
And a number of producers have found additional markets in the U.S. and it's certainly the case for a lot of our Big Sky hogs.
As long as we have the U.S. market to act as a safety valve for us, we can do that.
There's an appetite for additional hogs to keep plants at full capacity in the U.S. and as long as that's the case we'll find a home for our hogs.
Possberg admits the added freight costs involved in shipping hogs south is a concern, however, he notes there are good intentions to double shift plants at Red Deer and Brandon and interested parties are working hard to replace the capacity that's been lost in Saskatchewan.
He says, while the changes may prompt some producers to exit the industry, he remains confident there is reason to believe the future still holds a lot of promise for hog production in Saskatchewan.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council