A debate over the best way to increase chicken production in Manitoba could ruffle some feathers.
With the lowest cost of production in the country, Manitoba chicken farmers want to increase production by 24 percent over three years, the maximum allowed under an agreement with other provinces. Manitoba now has 3.75 percent of the total national production.
Farmers’ barns are “full to capacity, right to the rafters,” said Cornie Friesen, chair of the Manitoba Chicken Producer Board.
But prices are making things tight for farmers too, he said.
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Before farmers can get more quota, they need more space. Friesen said few are willing to lay out the money for a new barn right now.
He is confident feed grain costs will continue to drop due to the loss of the Crow rail transportation subsidy in 1995. Once margins improve, farmers will be able to invest in their barns, he said.
But Harold Froese, a producer from Oak Bluff, thinks chicken farmers should be talking more about the opportunities and challenges of raising more birds.
At a recent meeting of the marketing board, Froese made a motion to invite processors, allied industries and other producers to talk about the future of chicken with them.
Froese said the board should research the costs and efficiencies of different barn sizes, where they should be built, and whether it would be feasible for farmers to work together, combine their quota and build large barns.
But Friesen said bigger is not necessarily better. He said Manitoba farmers are already efficient.
“I believe in preserving the family farm,” he said. “The reason we are farmers is because we wanted to be our own boss, not to phone (a barn manager) in the morning and ask, ‘Did I make money yesterday?’ “
He said most Manitoba chicken farmers agree with him.
Froese admitted it would be a big shift for chicken farmers to combine forces with neighbors to create an operation where they have less control.
“I think maybe it’s part of our immigrant heritage … the thought that if you own a piece of land, that’s the way to farm. The soil that runs through your fingers has to be yours,” Froese said.
But he added farmers need to look at economic as well as emotional arguments. He said they need to consider the effects of not making big changes.
“If I stay the way I am today, will my children not have the opportunity to farm because the unit is not efficient?
“Should I change and perhaps give my children the opportunity to be a part-owner, to be a manager?”
The board will discuss the issues in more detail at a meeting in October.
