Bruce Cochrane.
32 hog carcasses from across Manitoba will be entered in the 2016 Pork Quality Competition which will be held in conjunction with Prairie Livestock Expo next week in Winnipeg.
The Pork Quality Competition will be held in conjunction with Prairie Livestock Expo December 14 in Winnipeg.
32 carcasses have been entered this year from across Manitoba.
Dennis Stevenson, the Pork Quality Competition Coordinator with the Prairie Livestock Expo Organizing Committee, says the top winners will share almost 25 thousand dollars which they will have the opportunity to donate to the charity of their choice and all of the meat will be donated to local food banks for distribution during the Christmas season.
Dennis Stevenson-Prairie Livestock Expo:
People who are in the province of Manitoba are eligible to enter.
It could be any producers that are a part of this but really it's mostly locals around the province of Manitoba.
We're seeing producers put in animals that they have looked at on their farms from different genetics and different genetics companies.
They're mostly commercial based animals.
The quality characteristics that we're looking for are things like carcass weight, carcass index, there would be loin size, backfat, marbling.
These are all the characteristics that these guys would be judged on normally when they go to Maple Leaf Foods or HyLife Foods in Manitoba.
It's really a regular part of what they do but it gets highlighted and then, at the end of the day, all of the meat is donated to the local charities and there's some prize money from sponsorships and those prize dollars are then given to local things like some hospitals, some foundations that are near and dear to the hearts of those people who have won the competition.
Stevenson says the competition offers an opportunity for the pork industry to support charities at Christmas time while shedding a light on the quality of the pork produced in Manitoba.
Source: Farmscape