BANFF, Alta. – Western Canadian agriculture is heading into a golden age because of demand for food in emerging nations.
Economic forecasts say Asia’s growth should reach six to 12 percent a year increasing its ability to buy higher priced food items. North America is positioned to supply Asian markets, especially with pork, the world’s most popular meat. Pork makes up 44 percent of all meat consumed in the world.
Alberta Agriculture’s Terry Church told hog farmers at the recent pork seminar held here from Jan. 21-24, that Asian nations are cutting back on swine production because of limited space for animals and manure disposal. There are also fewer young people interested in farming.
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Western Canada has the space and interest in developing the industry.
“The western Canadian industry is facing an unprecedented opportunity for growth and expansion,” said Church.
“We haven’t had such an opportunity since the Second World War.”
Alberta killed 2.8 million hogs in 1995. By the year 2005 government officials see potential for eight to 10 million hogs to come from Alberta.
A major obstacle facing expansion is raising money needed to build large hog operations.
Two speakers at the seminar described how they pulled in enough money to build modern mega-hog facilities.
The Quadra group in Saskatchewan established in 1987 has set up eight hog operations, said Jim Wright. A hog farmer from Wawota, he is one of the founding members of the Quadra group.
Working in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, the partners help build hog farms with local investors.
To start a project, local investors approach Quadra. Money is raised within the community and investments from individuals can be as low as $25,000. The Quadra group owns no more than half of any of the enterprises it establishes. All the investors share in the ownership, risks, decision making and profits of each farm.
The partnerships can vary. One consists of nine young farmers and another is made up of a group of farmers and community business people. About 30 to 40 percent of the project funds comes from equity financing and primary financing is raised through chartered banks.
Wright estimated it takes two years from the time the Quadra group is approached till the first shipment of hogs leaves a new farm.
In Manitoba, Puratone, a feed company, took a different approach. Puratone started in the chicken feed business. But because there are too many feed mills in Manitoba, the company started searching for other methods to sell its product, said Clarence Froese of Puratone.
Learn by doing
Through trial and error the company eventually became involved with hogs by establishing a sow contracting program in 1987.
Through joint ventures Puratone owns four farrow to finish operations with a total of 2,500 sows in production. It has four farrow to weanling farms, five off-site nurseries and 10 finishing operations. It also holds 7,200 sow contracts.
The feed mills act as co-operative ventures and supply feed to the hog farms, as well as some retail sales. The mills produce about 200,000 tonnes of feed annually.
