FLORAL, Sask. – The smile on John Patience’s face told the story as well as his words.
Hog research in Saskatchewan is expanding and as the president of Prairie Swine Centre it was his job to give the good news.
Patience told reporters and swine centre board members about a new 600-sow facility that will be added to the research centre.
“It will allow us to increase the speed of our research. At the same time we will be able to study a hog facility that is the same size as the barns being built on today’s farms,” said Patience.
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The Prairie Swine Centre, near Saskatoon, now operates with 275 sows in multiple barns. Its ability to study animals in a 600-unit barn with the same odor, health, feeding and manure problems faced by farmers will improve research, said Eric Upshall, Saskatchewan’s minister of agriculture.
“Some of the focus will be on finding better ways to control odor and handle manure. If we don’t look after the environment when it comes to these types of facilities, there will not be a hog industry in Saskatchewan to do research for,” said Upshall.
The minister announced a $3 million grant to pay for the “bricks and mortar” of the barn plus an additional $300,000 per year for three years to expand research activities at the centre.
Producing an additional 13,500 slaughter hogs each year will allow the Prairie Swine Centre to pay for the new barn’s operation. Additional funding for research beyond the governmental commitment will be sought from the private sector, said Patience.
He hopes to have hogs in the barn within a year, but says there are no set plans until a location is found. The site must be within 45 minutes of Saskatoon and meet all provincial environmental regulations.
“A lot will depend on the type of winter we have and how much work we can get done before winter sets in,” said Patience.
Prairie Swine Centre Inc. is a non-profit research organization affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan that studies hog nutrition, confinement engineering and the relationship between animal behavior and productivity.
