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Farmscape for December 4, 2008
(Episode 3034)
An Austin area Hutterite colony has claimed the top prize at the 2008 Manitoba Hog and Poultry Days Pork Quality competition in Winnipeg.
The 2008 Manitoba Hog and Poultry Days Pork Quality Competition attracted a total of 52 entries from across the province, down just slightly from previous years.
Exhibitors of the top 10 carcasses shared a total of approximately 27 thousand dollars in cash awards, half of which and in some cases all of which is donated to the charity of the winner's choice along with trophies.
Jason Care, with Manitoba Hog Grading Inc, one of this year's judges says guidelines for the competition are set in consultation with exhibitors and reflect demands of the market.
Clip-Jason Care-Manitoba Hog Grading Inc
The criteria that we have, we get the colonies or any entries to show up.
Usually we do it in the summer time and they set the guidelines in which they would like to see and what they feel would be the best hog.
Obviously it's a market hog that has good marbling, a lower backfat, a large loin eye.
We tweak it over the years to customize it to what their demand is for the competition.
It's just an industry standard, what the highest demand is for the hogs at the time.
It slowly changes and it changes with countries of origin as well.
We have different standards for different countries which look for different aspects of the hogs.
Canada is well know, especially for our higher quality of hogs.
A lot of genetics, especially in Manitoba, have been introduced to get these hogs narrowed down to the perfect market hog that we would like to see.
This year's top winner was Hidden Valley Colony of Austin.
The second place carcass was entered by Rose Valley Colony of Carman and Starlite Colony of Starbuck exhibited the third place entry.
All 52 carcasses are being donated to Winnipeg Harvest for distribution to food banks throughout Manitoba.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council
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