Pork Council Pilot Project To Use Alternative Technology

While 2014 was a very profitable year for most pork producers in Canada and the US, 2015 could be a different story.

Manitoba Pork Council General Manager Andrew Dickson says with the drop in finished prices, margins are going to be a lot tighter in the year ahead.

Dickson notes that increasing hog capacity in the province is also a concern.

He says they're going to be looking at alternative methods to try to increase hog numbers.

"We're going to do some pilot projects looking at alternative technologies to these anaerobic digesters, which are a requirement under the current environmental regulations," he said. "Hopefully if we can get approval from the province for these alternative technologies, which are essentially multiple cell settling systems, that we'll be able to get some additional capacity built this year or maybe next year."

Dickson adds that the province needs to ease up on barn development restrictions in order to help their cause.