The proof of the pork production pudding is in the pig herd.
And a Manitoba government official thinks the big talk about boosting the province’s hog numbers to four million a year will prove true next year.
“The sows will be in the barn (by the end of 1997),” said economic development board senior project manager Gerry Moore.
Last year, Manitoba produced about 2.8 million hogs, but the government has been pushing hard to increase that.
About a year and a half ago the provincial government broke the province’s hog board monopoly over producer objections. It has been furiously promoting hog barn development ever since.
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The government argued the end of the Crow subsidy meant it would be much more profitable to export meat than raw grains, and said Manitoba was perfectly situated for hog barn development.
Moore said he thinks the government’s activist approach was key to Manitoba’s hog growth.
“Sometimes you wish government stays out of things, but I think the government took the lead at the right time and gave the right signals,” said Moore.
Breaking the hog board’s monopoly allowed producers to work directly with packers, and forced producers and packers to view each other as allies, Moore said.
“The packer is not your enemy. He’s the guy who markets to your customers and you need that linkage,” said Moore.
Manitoba has the greatest hog number expansion on the Prairies, well ahead of Alberta’s and far exceeding Saskatchewan’s negligible growth.
The Manitoba government decided to become actively involved in promoting production, and the ensuing growth in the Manitoba pig herd “is not a coincidence,” said Moore.
“It’s quite an exciting time in pig town.”
