Links to Large Sections Relating To Confinement Hog Production:
Material From Original Gov't Discussion Paper
[ Intro to Hog production outlook from original discussion papersource#1, "Outlook for Manitoba's Livestock Industry" section p.1 ]Hog production in Manitoba is concentrated in southeastern and south-central parts of the province. Some of the recent expansion in the industry has occurred in western and southwestern Manitoba.
Total production of finished hogs in Manitoba this year is expected to exceed five million (from newborn to market ready hogs, inclusive of boars and the current provincial herd). A total of 10 million hogs will be required annually to meet the anticipated demand from Maple Leaf, the proposed J.M. Schneider processing plant and other processors.
Most of the recent expansion in hog production has involved larger sized operations, usually through development of "three-site" operations by several companies. Typically a new 1,200 to 1,500 sow, farrow-wean barn (site 1) is built. The weaned pigs are moved to an off-site nursery (site 2), which usually consists of four or five barns, each capable of holding 2,000 or 2,500 pigs. When the pigs reach a weight of about 23 kilograms, they are moved to a grow/finish facility (site 3), which usually consists of three to five barns, each capable of holding about 2,000 pigs.
To meet the demand created by the new hog processing plants, producers would need to add about 300,000 more sows. This increase in inventory would require an additional 150 sow barns (2,000 sows/barn) and about 300 grower/finisher barns (8,000 feeder capacity). Construction of the barns and associated infrastructure to accommodate this increase has been estimated to cost nearly $1 billion.
Under provincial regulations for manure application, about 500,000 acres of land would be needed to accommodate the additional manure created by this level of hog production. Manitoba has about 13.3 million acres of cropland, plus four million acres of forage. Therefore, the additional lands required for livestock production or manure application would equal about 4 per cent of the crop base. Livestock producers probably supply less than 20 per cent of the required nutrients for annual crop production, with the balance supplied from commercial fertilizers.
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Material From "Common Ground" Government Report
Other Material and References