A Grande Prairie, Alta., hog farmer who was voted Canada’s top young farmer in 1997, two years before he went bankrupt, has not soured on farming.
Instead, Clint Rempel has been hired to help a group of La Crete-area farmers build a 600-sow farrow to finish barn in the northern Alberta community.
“I still think the hog industry is one of the greatest industries to be in,” said Rempel, hired by Mackenzie Pork Producers Inc., to put together a business plan and an offer of memorandum for the $4 million project.
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Rempel and the farmers in La Crete are bucking the odds.
He and his family are rebuilding after losing everything, including their house, in a high profile bankruptcy. Rempel added a 2,000-head finisher barn to his 350-sow operation just before hog prices collapsed.
“There’s nothing you can do to turn the clock back,” he said.
The community is taking a chance building a barn so far from the nearest slaughter facility.
Like the television show The Friendly Giant, which told listeners to look up, waaay up, that’s what you have to do to find La Crete on a map of Alberta. The mainly Mennonite farming community was carved out of the bush in the 1960s, the last farming area developed in the province.
Everything is a long way from the community of 2,500. With grain transportation costs on the rise, the region needed a way to add value to feed grain.
It costs about $1,750 to ship a load of hogs from La Crete to Red Deer, the closest hog slaughtering plant. It costs about $1,680 to ship a B-train of barley to the same destination.
“There is a major freight bill to get the grain out.”
Once the barn is in production, Rempel estimates it will cost about half the freight bill to ship hogs, compared to the raw grain they will eat.
At a recent community meeting, more than 70 people turned up to support the venture.
“There was 98 percent support. We were very, very encouraged.”
Rempel said through a transfer of RSP money for shares and local investment, they hope to raise at least half and possibly three-quarters of the money for the barn from the community. The share offering is expected to be complete by April and construction to begin in May.
“To be involved with something that’s going to be a success, it’s exciting.”
