Dave Wood was upbeat last week as the Maple Leaf pork plant at Brandon, Man., moved into its second full month of slaughter.
Wood, the company’s plant manager in Brandon, said it is processing about 2,000 hogs a day, double what the company had targeted for early October.
“We’re going to go into a bit of a holding pattern right now and get really good at what we’re doing,” Wood said Oct. 5.
Maple Leaf Pork started processing hogs at its $120 million Brandon plant in late August. The company expects to reach capacity on the plant’s first shift by March. It will then process 45,000 hogs each week.
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Pork from the plant is going into domestic and export markets. Some value-added processing has already started in the cutting areas.
Wood said he hopes the plant will slaughter 5,000 hogs per day in December. At that rate it would employ 850 people. About 1,000 workers will be needed when the first shift reaches full stride.
Wood said the company is easily securing the hogs needed for the Brandon plant, which is already ahead of target on the number of hogs processed per day.
