Glacier FarmMedia – Anyone who wanted to meet a young, competitive and chatty hog producer last week just had to hang around outside the glass-fronted hog cooler at the recent Brandon Hog and Livestock Show.
Throughout the event, groups of young men, mostly Hutterites, approached the glass and appraised the top five carcasses on display. To the right of the cooler stood the first, second and third place trophies, plus plaques for fourth and fifth places.
Some seemed impressed, pointing out the high-quality markers they saw in the meat, fat, bone and colour. Keen eyes developed from years of careful animal husbandry in barns across Manitoba have given these lads, mostly teens and early 20s, a hands-on education that few in North America’s hog industry can boast.
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A handful seemed a little cheesed off, or perhaps a touch unimpressed. Maybe the carcass they entered — there were 30 in the competition — didn’t make the top five.
As always, there are winners and losers, and this year’s champion, Wellwood Colony, won more than the towering trophy.
“It’s bragging rights,” said a beaming Andy Cardy, chair of the competition. “The colonies are all involved.”
Having scores of young producers chatting with exhibitors and fellow farmers was a joy for organizers of the show, which was last held in 2019.
It’s been a trying time for hog production, with slumping lean hog prices drawing notice even on Bloomberg Radio, the 24-hour-a-day business news service.
From $88 per hundredweight in Chicago Lean Hogs futures in January, prices hit $66 during the show before more-dovish-than-expected language from the U.S. central bank governor ignited a cross-markets rally, lifting prices to $70.
Still, it’s a lean time in the pig production business.
Also hanging over the industry are complications from California’s Proposition 12 meat requirements, which come into force in a few weeks.
However, hog producers young and old are familiar with the boom-and-bust cycles of the industry. As one long-time leader noted, predictions that the hog cycle would disappear have proven false.
It’s not a good time for making money in hog production today, but for the young producers who thronged to this show and checked out the competition, nothing has changed in trying to produce the best pig and see it recognized by friends and competitors.
“It’s a big, fun competition,” said Cardy.
– Ed White is a reporter for The Western Producer.
