When the Prairie Swine Centre set up a new research facility near Elstow, Sask., in 2000, the idea was to mirror the actual production conditions facing hog producers.
Apparently it succeeded, perhaps too well for its own good.
Last week, the centre temporarily suspended operations at the PSC Elstow Research Farm Inc. because of the financial crisis enveloping the pork industry.
“Elstow was designed to operate as a commercial operation in the real world,” said centre president John
Patience.
The same real world issues plaguing Canadian hog producers – high debt, the strong dollar, rising feed costs and low prices for hogs – made it unviable to continue operations.
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“The barn’s operating costs and debt load predicts that it will be unprofitable for many months to come based on projected feed and pork prices,” Patience said.
The Elstow operation, about 50 kilometres east of Saskatoon, will wind down operations in an orderly fashion over the next few months.
Sows are being moved out and the last animals should be gone by September.
Patience said the farm, which includes a 600-sow, farrow-to-finish barn and feed mill, is not closing permanently and will resume operations when economic conditions improve.
“We expect it to reopen in a relatively short period of time.”
He said the farm will remain a commercial research facility, but the business plan may be adjusted to make it less susceptible to the vagaries of the market.
Research has to be looked at on a long-term basis, he added, and even a temporary suspension will force some research projects currently underway to be abandoned.
Research work at the farm over the past eight years has included group housing of sows, auto-sort selection systems for weighing pigs, the use of Paylean to increase leanness and developing feeding programs to minimize costs of production.
“It’s a very impressive list,” Patience said.
“The facility has more than fulfilled the expectations we had when it was built.”
Some of the Elstow research projects will continue at the swine centre’s facility at Floral, a few kilometres east of Saskatoon.
Patience said while all the news about the pork industry these days seems to be bad, those involved in the swine centre continue to believe there is a strong future for the industry.
He said pork accounts for 42 percent of total world meat protein and consumption is growing by two to three percent a year, or about twice the annual production in Canada, which bodes well for the future.
The centre is in the midst of a $2 million barn renovation at Floral, funded by the provincial and federal governments.
The renovations, designed to reduce operating costs and make the facility more competitive, are to be completed in June.
