HOLDEN, Alta. – Dave Stahl keeps a close eye on the bottom line.
The farm boss at the Holden Colony said Hutterite colonies are the same as most other farmers. If they’re going to survive, they need to diversify and be efficient.
“You have to get more efficient, that’s the key,” said Stahl, who doesn’t send a bushel of grain to an elevator or grain company without checking price, hauling discounts and freight rates from all the competitors.
“All farmers have to do that or they won’t survive.”
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Efficiency doesn’t always mean building bigger barns or getting fancier equipment. The Holden Colony didn’t want a larger hog barn to improve the efficiency of its 130-sow hog operation, so instead of using bricks and mortar, the colony improved the quality of hogs through genetics. Its purebred Yorkshire pigs are now some of the best in Alberta.
When the Maple Leaf plant closed in Edmonton the colony was put on a long waiting list to deliver to Fletcher’s Fine Foods, Alberta’s remaining large hog plant, in Red Deer. The colony managers shopped around and decided to ship directly to Intercontinental Packers in Saskatoon.
They bought a larger truck to carry 200 hogs and are hauling every two weeks instead of once a week. They like the extra money they can make selling heavier hogs by contract through Intercontinental and SPI, Saskatchewan’s hog marketing agency.
Diversification has always been important to most prairie Hutterite colonies.
At Holden, the Hutterites also care for 5,000 layer hens, 200 beef cows, 100 dairy cattle, 130 sows and 5,000 acres of crops, which include 300 acres of seed potatoes.
This year they’ll grow some CPS wheat for the first time, try some herbicide-tolerant canola and may try peas next year when the residue from past herbicide applications is reduced.
“I like to watch farmers who are already doing it and see how it goes,” said Stahl. This year he’s keeping his eye on farmers growing fall-seeded canola.
Because wheat, chickens, hogs and dairy are managed through single-desk selling agencies, Stahl tries to keep abreast of marketing board politics and doesn’t see a long-term future for the boards.
“This quota business is on its way out. As far as I’m concerned there should be no quota on anything.”
He thinks marketing boards will be pressured to allow producers to expand as much as possible and find their own markets for products.
But it’s not all gold in the free-market land, said Stahl. He sold some wheat in the United States and unlike the reports from some producers who oppose the Canadian Wheat Board, he didn’t come home with big profits.
“I tried to sell wheat to Montana and it’s not as rosy as it looks.”
