SASKATOON – With dwindling entries in the swine show, Canadian Western Agribition organizers are wondering whether it is a reflection of the modern swine industry or a relic of the past.
“I expect we’ll have a swine show for 1995 … at the same time we’ll experiment with other avenues,” said Wayne Gamble executive vice-president of Canadian Western Agribition, in Regina.
Agribition officials and hog producers met recently to see if a commercial exhibit, featuring cooked pork products and an investment booth promoting industry investment, would do more to improve the hog industry than a live hog show.
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This year, 13 producers displayed their hogs in the purebred shows and market classes during Agribition, a fraction of the 3,000 hog breeders in the province.
Quality still high
The dwindling number of hogs at the show isn’t a reflection of the quality of stock, but a fear of disease, said Marilyn Jonas, a member of the Pork Implementation Team, a provincial organization promoting the pork industry.
“People purchasing from the show would be smaller producers that aren’t as concerned with health status,” said Jonas.
There’s a trend in the hog industry to larger barns with a uniform size and quality of hogs. These barns limit the introduction of new hogs to stop the introduction of disease.
But not all hog producers have big barns and Len Zimmer thinks there is still a place for the show. The Spalding, Sask., producer said Agribition is his key marketing tool and he doesn’t want the show to disappear.
During Agribition Zimmer spends a lot of time in the hog barn promoting his purebred stock and talking with visitors.
“The quality is a good representation of breeding stock found anywhere in the world.
“It’s just that the breeding stock companies are doing a better job of marketing. Breeding companies have plain out-marketed us.”
No live hogs
For Zimmer it’s the premier marketing tool for his 180 farrow- to-finish barn. Even though he wants the show to remain, he can foresee the day when the swine show becomes a trade show without live hogs.
Yet he feels there is a need to display live hogs. This year an Alberta breeder mixed up his dates and two sows farrowed during the show. It brought a steady stream of kids to the barn.
“It was absolutely wild in there for children.”
