Manitoba Pork Marketing Co-op expects to begin the construction of a new hog assembly yard near Stonewall this spring.
Until July 2008, when Manitoba Pork Marketing decommissioned its Marion Street assembly yard, hogs were assembled in Winnipeg.
The cooperative currently operates assembly yards at Neepawa and New Bothwell and is planning a third facility in the Stonewall area around the Perimeter Highway and Number 6 highway at Winnipeg Livestock.
Co-op CEO Perry Mohr recalls there were half a dozen packing plants in Winnipeg 25 years ago but now there are none and Brandon has become hog central.
There is a void that needs to be filled in this Winnipeg area.
We’ve presently got producers that are hauling their pigs all the way from the Interlake area down into New Bothwell to be assembled so they’re paying freight to go to New Bothwell and then they’re paying freight from New Bothwell to other destinations as well and in some cases they’re back-tracking.
We also have participated in the sow assembly business for as long as I have been involved in the industry.
The volumes are certainly large enough.
It’s also a revenue opportunity and a service opportunity for the co-op.
If you look at that particular area there’s a Hutterite demographic there that’s quite densely populated with Hutterites and we’re hoping to capture some of the cull market as well with that facility out at Stonewall.
Mohr says the co-op received engineered blueprints last week, the work is being tendered now and delegates will make a final decision on the project the their annual meeting in April.
He hopes to see construction in begin in the spring and the facility fully operational by mid-summer.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
