Sask Pork Board of Directors sets priorities for coming year
By Bruce Cochrane, Farmscape
The Chair of Sask Pork says among the organization's priorities during the coming year will be industry development, producer services, public relations and research.
Last month, at its first meeting, the 2021-2023 Sask Pork Board Board of Directors elected Toby Tschetter of Star City as its Chair and Jay McGrath of Leroy as its Vice-Chair.
Board Chair Toby Tschetter, who serves as the Unit Manager with Star City Farming, notes he has been involved in pork production for close to 30 years working in all areas of from barn worker to manager.
“I've been on this board, going into my fifth year on the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board. As for the decision to take on the Chair, it's similar to my decision for joining the board. There's stuff happening outside the hog industry outside the barn door and, if you don't go out and see that, you're kind of liable to get stuck in a groove in the hog industry,” said Tschetter, who was recently featured in Better Pork’s producer panel on biosecurity. “I like to be involved in discussion on policy and this decision just takes my position as a director to the next level.”
Saskatchewan is the 5th largest producer of hogs in Canada behind Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, and Alberta. In 2020-2021, 2.2 million pigs were produced on 147 farms across Saskatchewan.
“Sask Pork's mission is to work on behalf of the pork producers to make sure we have a positive business environment and maintains our global competitiveness in the industry while we're trying to stimulate long term growth and investment in Saskatchewan's pork industry,” explained Tschetter.
The Board of Directors have set out four priorities for the industry. This includes industry development, producer services, public relations and research and I expect we'll continue to have progress in all of these priorities in the coming year.
Tschetter says he is looking forward to continuing the great work already happening at Sask Pork, building on the foundation set by previous boards and capitalizing on the growing demand for hogs and opportunities for Canadian pork.
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