After serving as chair of the Manitoba Pork Council for 11 years, Karl Kynoch says that it's time for some new blood to take over.
Kynoch will be stepping down from the position next April, when a new chair will be elected at the organization's annual meeting.
"I've put a lot of thought into this for quite a while, a lot of discussion with my wife," he said. "I'm going to really miss Pork Council. I'm very proud of that organization and the opportunity to be able to represent the pork producers. So yeah, it's a tough decision but I think at the end of the day it would be the right decision."
Kynoch says that that after some tough recent years, it's nice to finally see prices turn around for hog producers.
"The last number of years, especially the last four years, we had three of those years where we had a tremendous amount of losses," he said. "The producers turned over a lot of red ink; took on a lot of debt. We've been very fortunate this past summer. We've hit some record high prices, so producers are managing to put some funds back onto their balance sheets, which is really good to see and was really needed."
The past 15 years on the board has been quite the roller coaster according to Kynoch. He says one accomplishment he's proud of was their campaign to change public perception about the hog industry. Kynoch says people are finally starting to realize that they do a lot of good things. He adds working with government has been one of the challenges over the years.
Kynoch adds the hog industry has given him so much and he wanted to give something back.
"I've really enjoyed the last number of years working for the pork producers," he said. " I know my family and I, we're where we are today due to hogs. We've been raising hogs, I think since 1979, so it's really been our great pleasure to have served with the pork industry for the past number of years and give something back because it's been really good for our family."