NEERLANDIA, Alta. – Ken and Maria Hamoen may be defying conventional wisdom, but they are confident they have made the right decision.
The Alberta couple just sold their bison herd, which is worth a lot of money, and are keeping their hogs, which are barely breaking even.
“I love having buffalo. I’m a little sad to see them go,” Maria said the week before the breeding bison left the farm.
But four-year-old Garnett wasn’t upset that the bison would no longer be in the field in front of the house.
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“Then we can snowmobile in the pasture,” he said. “That’s going to be fun.”
Ken said the decision to sell the bison wasn’t easy.
They had hired a temporary foreign worker from the Philippines a few years ago to help in the barns and with the bison.
In the end, the bison didn’t justify having an extra worker.
Instead, the pasture will be turned into cropland to grow barley for the pigs, and family and neighbours will be hired part time to help out in the purebred hog operation.
The Hamoens believe focusing on niche markets in the hog industry will allow them to withstand the fluctuating hog markets that have knocked so many other people out of the business.
“Sure we’re surviving, but it’s still not a prosperous time by any stretch. We still feel very blessed,” said Ken, who serves on the council of his local church.
The couple’s three oldest children attend the church-run Covenant Canadian Reformed School in the nearby hamlet of Neerlandia. The youngest two children are still at home.
The Neerlandia area has a strong Dutch community. Hamoen’s parents emigrated from the Netherlands when they were young.
Four years ago, the Hamoen’s and three neighbours emptied their hog barns to eliminate disease.
At the time, the couple planned to become a multiplier barn for purebred hog producer Murray Roeske of Alcomdale, Alta.
Half way through the depopulation process, a disease that could be eradicated only by moving the hogs to another barn hit Roeske’s pigs.
That was when the young couple decided to buy all 40 of Roeske’s hogs and get into the purebred business.
They raise purebred Yorkshire, Landrace, Duroc and Pietrain hogs and crossbred sows on their quarter-section farm.
They also sell semen from 16 boars through the Magnum Swine Genetics semen collection facility in southern Alberta.
Twice a week, Hamoen loads up market weight gilts and delivers the purebred animals to customers across the province and into British Columbia.
Operating a 110-sow purebred herd takes more record keeping and paper work, but Hamoen likes the contact with other producers.
“I had a desire to do something more than crank out pigs,” he said.
“We see it as an opportunity we’d like to see through.”
Unlike large hog operations, Ken gets to decide what animals to keep, delivers the hogs and is responsible for the genetic selection process.
“In larger companies, they’re sold, bred and delivered by three different people,” he said.
“Long term, I want to stay with the breeding enterprise. It’s a challenge, but I enjoy dealing with people.”
After high school, Ken worked in nearby Barrhead at the local Chrysler dealership and earned his mechanic ticket.
When he and Maria were married, they knew they wanted to move to the farm to raise their young family. Hamoen’s uncle used to own the farm they now live on and Ken’s brother lives on the family farm nearby.
Low hog prices, H1N1, high feed prices and a high Canadian dollar have hurt the Hamoens’ business. They have weathered the difficult times by creating a niche market, but low prices have eroded their equity.
Maria said the low prices have postponed house renovations.
“The renovation for the house won’t happen, but we still have good holidays.”
As another insurance policy against low prices, the family bought shares in Sturgeon Valley Pork, a small processing facility north of Edmonton that allows them to deliver their extra hogs to the value-added processing plant.
The plant offers a DNA traceback of each hog for increased consumer confidence and hopefully more money.
“We feel there is a lot of upside potential,” said Ken, who believes there is a large untapped market for fresh pork, especially in Vancouver area stores.
