Manitoba could be expanding its hog industry, with the potential for more hog barns being built in the province.
Manitoba Pork general manager Andrew Dickson says thanks to the province's decision to allow barns to be built with a two-cell settlement for manure instead of the previously required anaerobic digesters, the opportunity is here. While this change in regulation already happened last year, Dickson thinks the industry in a good place for expansion.
"When we look forward, we see relatively lower grain prices compared to what they have been. We see interest rates at all-time lows. Demand for pork seems to be holding and world demand seems to be increasing with all these new trade agreements coming into place," he says. "Producers are starting to say to themselves, 'Do we build or don't we build?'"
Dickson says current producers are considering expanding operations through new barns, while there's also some interest for new producers to enter the industry at this time — although right now Dickson says it's impossible to know how many new barns this could mean.
Source : PortageOnline