The newly elected chair of Manitoba Pork says, moving forward, increasing the province’s pork production to match processing capacity and creating a hog industry income stabilization program will be among his top priorities.
Last week, following Manitoba Pork’s 2015 Annual General Meeting the organization’s Board of Directors elected Stonewall area pork producer George Matheson as its new chair replacing retiring chair Karl Kynoch.
Matheson, who joined Manitoba Pork as a delegate in 1997, says, in light of the Manitoba government’s relaxation of restrictions on new hog barn construction, his priorities will include increasing pork production in the province and developing an income stabilization program.
We do have a shortage of hogs in this province in relation to our processing plants, most notable Maple Leaf at Brandon would like to process 90 thousand hogs per week.
They’re short that number by 20 thousand every week so we need a million more hogs produced in this province every year.
I think between getting the moratorium completely lifted and getting some kind of stabilization from the government in regards to cash flow and security when a producer is trying to achieve financing for a hog barn, if we could get those pieces in place, get those barns constructed I can’t help but think that there are farms in this province that would be a good fit for a finishing hog barn.
Matheson says, while the industry has faced a range of challenges including Circovirus a few years and more recently PED, trade issues, most notably U.S. Country of Origin Labelling, and labor shortages, hog farming is no less viable than any other segment of agriculture.
