September 24, 2007

 

Hogs from Saskatchewan exported to Manitoba, Alberta, US

 

 

With no federally approved hog slaughtering facilities left in the province of Saskatchewan, hogs have been finding homes in Manitoba, Alberta and in the US, according to industry participants Friday.

 

"The closure of Maple Leaf's Saskatoon hog-slaughtering facility at the end of May has resulted in producers in the province looking elsewhere to market their annual production of 2.5 million to 2.6 million hogs," Brad Marceniuk, Livestock Economist with Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food, said.

 

Maple Leaf Foods closed its aging Saskatoon, Saskatchewan plant in May this year and added a second slaughter shift to its more modern facility in Brandon, Manitoba.

 

However, he said that, with the lack of slaughtering facilities in Saskatchewan, producers have started to switch their operations from the production of slaughter-weight hogs to the production of weanlings or feeder pigs.

 

Of the hogs produced in the province, roughly 300,000 were said to be feeders, Marceniuk said. "That level was expected to grow further yet."

 

About 75 percent of the remaining hogs in the province are generally marketed to the Maple Leaf Food plant in Brandon, Manitoba, while the rest are sent to the Olymel facility in Alberta or to the US, he said.

 

"The marketings are very dependent on prices and how busy the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon is, as well as the time of the year," he added.

 

Dan Hrapchak, general manager of the SPI Marketing Group, confirmed most of the hogs produced in the province are being shipped to Brandon, and said there's also been a jump in the number of Saskatchewan hogs sent to the US as feeders.

 

He did not have any estimates on the numbers being shipped to the US.

 

Neil Ketilson, general manager of Sask Pork, the representative organization of all Saskatchewan pork producers, estimated that up to 1.0 million slaughter-weight hogs were likely to be shipped to the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon during calendar year 2007 while 225,000 slaughter-weight hogs were likely to be shipped to the US in 2007.

 

He agreed that current feeder pig shipments to the US were running at about 300,000 head on an annual basis.

 

He said, however, that producers were in the process of shifting from the production of slaughter-ready hogs to feeders, and that the number of feeder pigs shipped was expected to increase to 750,000 head on a yearly basis.

 

The cost of transporting the hogs is the main reason for the switch. Transportation costs to outlets in Manitoba were said to be $5 to $8 a head higher than they would be to a Saskatchewan facility.

 

Shipments to US outlets for market-ready hogs cost roughly C$20 to C$23 per hog, Ketilson said. Weanling or feeder pig shipment costs were only C$2 to C$3 per head.

 

Ketilson said work was underway to attract another processor into the province. He indicated there has been some interest in establishing a new facility, but because it was still early in the process, "we would rather not comment on any developments at this time."