These days it’s hard to find a hook to hang your hog on.
That’s why many pig producers and hog marketers are looking forward to Maple Leaf Foods’ second shift at its Brandon slaughter plant planned to start next fall.
But new slaughter capacity, known in the industry as “shackle space,” might come at a price: the loss of some old shackle space.
“If they get their second shift going, is it going to displace any of the kill capacity they have right now?” wondered Mack Rennie, general manager of Alberta’s Western Hog Exchange.
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“Are they going to shut something down at the same time?”
University of Missouri hog industry analyst Ron Plain asked the same thing about the new 16,000-pig-per-day slaughter plant planned for St. Joseph, Missouri.
He said slaughter capacity now is “a bit close,” but doubling Maple Leaf’s production and adding St. Joseph’s will have a cost.
“Most likely some old plant will shut down,” said Plain.
In the end, total shackle space will probably increase by 10,000-15,000, Plain said. That’s all right because the slaughter industry needs renewal but not massive amounts of new capacity.
To inspire new plants, packers need profits. Too much new capacity too fast would hurt all packers.
In recent years slaughter capacity has fallen far short of the average replacement rate.
Maple Leaf’s plant in Brandon is the newest in North America and the newest before that is now about eight years old. The St. Joseph plant won’t be built for at least another year.
If Maple Leaf goes ahead with its second shift at Brandon, there will suddenly be 40,000 head per week more shackle space on the Prairies.
That would help prairie hog farmers because right now it is hard to find a home for a slaughter hog.
“It’s getting tighter and tighter,” said Rennie.
The Western Hog Exchange sends most of its producers’ pigs to the Olymel plant in Red Deer. Rennie has negotiated a certain amount of shackle space at the plant and right now “I’ve filled them all.”
New capacity on the Prairies would stop hogs heading to the U.S. and would make it easier to arrange slaughter, Rennie said. Alleviating the glut would create more flexibility for both packer and marketer.
Some of the glut has been caused by the temporary shutdown of the Springhill Farms plant in Neepawa, Man. That plant is operating again.
But Rennie worries that doubling capacity at Brandon could cause a reduction in slaughter at Saskatoon and Winnipeg, where Schneider Corp. has plants. He hopes an expanded Brandon plant can create more slack that farmers can pick up if they need, but he also doesn’t want to see so much that the packers start losing money.
