New cull sow slaughter plant promises multiple benefits, says Sask producer

By Bruce Cochrane, Farmscape

A partner with Polar Pork Farms says a new Saskatchewan based cull sow slaughtering plant will reduce the cost of shipping sows to slaughter, minimize the risk of transmitting disease from one country to the other and avoid the complications that result from border closures.

Construction of the new North 49 cull sow slaughtering plant in Moose Jaw by Donald's Fine Foods is nearing completion. Florian Possberg, a partner with Polar Pork Farms, said that anytime you can increase the structure of the industry its good news.

”Currently most of our cull sows are going to the U.S. Some are going to southern Manitoba but obviously having a significant plant in Moose Jaw is really good news for us. It reduces our freight cost to slaughter.
More importantly, by taking the border risk out of the equation, there's a lot of diseases where our cull sows go into the U.S. that have the potential to be dragged back on dirty trailers and that sort of stuff so we eliminate a significant disease risk. As well we know that borders can close in a heartbeat and having a plant right here in Saskatchewan greatly reduces border risk as well so there's a number of good reasons why that is good news for us and our industry so we're just anxiously waiting  for that plant to be opened.
Certainly, anything that can add to the infrastructure for our industry is good news. The fact that Donald's is making a major investment there instills confidence in our industry in general so that's very good,” said Florian Possberg with Polar Pork Farms.

With over 45 years in the pork industry, Possberg is a well-known advocate for the hog industry. Possberg has held positions on the board of Sask Pork, as well as positions with the Canadian Pork Council, and Prairie Swine Centre.

Possberg suggested that high barn construction costs are limiting growth. He said the cost of replacing facilities built 15 to 20 years ago is probably four times higher and, if we are to maintain a viable industry, at some point we'll have to start replacing older facilities.

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