Governments invest $2.2M in pork projects

Behind the scenes of Manitoba’s prosperous and growing hog industry — the largest in the country — is sophisticated genetics management.

And the company that now controls about 50 per cent of that market in Manitoba and 30 per cent in the country, Topigs Norsvin, is investing another $50 million in a facility northwest of Gladstone to upgrade and expand its so-called nucleus population that secures the optimum hog genetics generation after generation.

The company — formed in 2014 with the merger of Dutch and Norwegian companies — established its Canadian operations in Winnipeg in 2008 when the Dutch company Topigs acquired Maple Leaf Foods’ genetics division.

Cam McGavin, general manger of Topigs Norsvin Canada, said Maple Leaf continues to be an important customer of the company.

In fact the company’s genetics now selects for the best sows and boars that will thrive in the new advance open sow housing systems that will be used in all Maple Leaf Foods hog barns by the end of 2021.

At the new facility currently under construction, that will create about 30 new jobs, the company will undertake a number of research projects that the federal and provincial governments will contribute $2.2 million towards through its Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP).

The research will focus on a few areas like increasing feed efficiency, advancing sow reproductive knowledge and applying machine learning and artificial intelligence and behavioural science to enhance efficiency.

Among the goals of the research is to lower the CO-2 footprint for hog producers, specifically with more efficient feeding techniques.

“Total feed efficiency is a big concept,” McGavin said. “It refers to producing as much pork as we can with as little feed as possible. That is the heart and soul of environmental sustainability for the industry.”

The research — the first of its kind in the world— is to be conducted at the new operation being built in Plumas and to be completed by the end of 2022, is aimed at sow management and results will be shared with industry stakeholders.

It will generate a data base comprised of important animal health and welfare data.

The investment is of such strategic importance that federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau was at the announcement.

Bibeau said she was proud of the resiliency the Canadian agricultural industry showed during the pandemic and acknowledged the many new challenges that have cropped up in the meantime.

She said, “Our thoughts are with farmers affected by heavy flooding in B.C. and those stranded by road and rail closures. We are working with our provincial counterparts to respond.”

As for Topigs Norsvin’s research that will be funded with CAP assistance, she said, “Using the latest advancements in animal welfare and precision feeding will help the hog industry be more sustainable environmentally and economically.”

Meanwhile, the Prairie ag industry is just coming out of the worst drought in 20 years and Bibeau said the federal and provincial authorities took action earlier this year to make available an additional $825 million in risk management funding “in record time to make sure money was flowing to farmers as rapidly as possible.”

Topigs Norsvin Canada has a number of hog facilities in Manitoba and has invested many millions of dollars in the province since 2008. It already employs about 100 people before the commissioning of the operation now under construction.

Part of the parent company’s desire to establish in Canada was to be better able to establish its nucleus herds in isolated locations to protect the herds from virus contamination.

martin.cash@winnipegfreepress.com

Martin Cash
Reporter

Martin Cash has been writing a column and business news at the Free Press since 1989. Over those years he’s written through a number of business cycles and the rise and fall (and rise) in fortunes of many local businesses.

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