Five huge hog finishing barns are being built in southwestern Saskatchewan, and the owners hope the projects will stimulate more hog industry expansion in the area.
While independently owned by eight investors, the production from the barns is contracted to Heartland Pork Management, a subsidiary of Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Heartland will also supply feed and stock to the barns.
Allen Lind, one of the investors, said the group from the Ponteix, Cadillac and Admiral areas decided to go ahead with the venture even though a general community investment drive didn’t get off the ground.
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“We sort of took the bull by the horns … It’s like anything, some people have to have the initiative to spearhead something,” Lind said, taking a break from giving grand opening tours of the first finished barn Nov. 12.
“We know that if we have the finishing capacity here, Heartland won’t want to be hauling pigs from North Battleford or Carrot River all the way down here to fill these barns.
“Hopefully this is just the start.”
He noted that Heartland’s long-term hopes for southwestern Saskatchewan include major investments in sow and nursery barns and a feed mill.
The total investment in the five finishing barns is $15 million to $20 million. Each will employ two full-time employees with occasional part-time help.
“But it’s not only the jobs in the barns. There are the spinoffs throughout the whole area – the restaurant business, the fuel guys, hotels, motels, you name it.”
Each football field-sized barn is capable of producing 30,000 hogs a year. Together, they will supply about 45 percent of Heartland’s finishing capacity.
He said the barns meet or exceed environmental standards. The sewage lagoons will be covered with barley straw to reduce odor and the manure will be injected into fields rather than sprayed.
He added the eight owners have about 90 percent of the land needed to take the manure.
Although hog prices continue on shaky ground, the owners believe better days are ahead.
“While the hog market is down right now, pork meat still accounts for about 40 percent of the world’s meat consumption and it’s expected to grow. We want to benefit from that increased consumption,” said Gary Wellbrock, one of the barn owners and a director of Sask Pool.
Lind noted Fletcher’s Fine Foods packing plant in Red Deer, also associated with Sask Pool, is eager to get hogs to push the plant toward its capacity.
“I can hear them squealing right now,” said Lind with a laugh.
