It started as a promising agricultural economic diversification project in northern Alberta 10 years ago but will be put to rest May 28.Farm Credit Canada is holding an unreserved auction for Mackenzie Pork’s mothballed 600 sow farrow to finish hog barn in La Crete.“The hog industry has been very brutal to a lot of people,” said FCC’s Rick Dehod.The $3 million barn, built in 2000 with $1.7 million invested by local community members, was a victim of bad timing.Ten months after it opened, the price of feed, natural gas and electricity jumped, the price of hogs fell and the owners never found solid footing.“All our costs overnight doubled,” said Craig Reid, an initial investor and chair of Mackenzie Pork.“We thought we had a plan. We’d done our homework. We talked to Alberta Agriculture and got all the numbers. We thought we had researched it well.”When Mackenzie Pork directors realized they couldn’t make it work, they found investors in Rocky Mountain Pork of Lacombe, Alta. FCC took over from CIBC, the initial financial investor.By 2007, everyone had walked away from the barn, unwilling to invest more money.“The economy just made it so we could not stay afloat,” said Reid.Ninety-one local investors representing 50 shareholder units came up with $1.775 million. Of that, $675,000 came from their registered retirement savings plans.“I have a lot of praise and appreciation for the community. It’s an adventurous and industrious community. They took a chance and it didn’t work out,” said Reid.Since 2007, FCC has listed the barn, 112 acres of land and all the equipment for sale, but had no buyers.Dehod said FCC made a decision to sell it and let the community set the price.“Unfortunately it’s a hog barn at the end of the road. If it’s not one and a half hours from Olymel (hog slaughter plant) and the barn isn’t state of the art, it’s pretty hard to sell.”Last year, Dehod oversaw the sale of seven hog barns. The going rate for 15- to 20-year-old hog barns is 10 to 20 cents on the dollar.“This barn is beautiful, but it’s in a remote location.”
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