Difficulties accessing labor and swine barn renovations are being blamed for a reduction in the number of entries in this year’s Brandon Hog Days Pork Quality Competition.
2015 Pork Quality Competition winners will be announced Wednesday as part of Hog Days Brandon.
Ron Bazylo, a business development specialist for swine with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and the competition coordinator, says the event allows pork producers to compete for cash prizes, trophies and bragging rights.
We have a judge that comes in on the morning before the actual Hog Days and judges each of the carcasses. There are a number of different things that he looks at.
First of all of course is the hot carcass weight, the belly, the texture of fat and lean. We look at back fat and give certain points for the back fat levels of the pork and we look at marbling, loin eye colour and the loin eye area, which is the pork chops. The actual grading is similar to what Maple Leaf would use and also Hylife in Neepawa. These traits are very important because that’s what the consumers prefer. They prefer a certain loin eye area, like for the pork chops. Back fat is very important because, as you are aware, most people are looking for lean meat with very little fat on the meat, especially the bacon.
Also the other thing that is important is the colour and marbling. Marbling is one of the features that give the flavor to the pork. All of these attributes are very important for consumer preference and that’s how these animals are judged.
Bazylo says, because of labor shortages and barn renovations, numbers are down so entries are still being accepted. For information call Ron Bazylo at 204 572-5282.
