Farmscape for May 11, 2010   (Episode 3423)

A Starbuck area hog producer is calling on the Manitoba government to re-evaluate legislation that bans the construction of new or the expansion of existing hog operations in much of the province.

In September 2008 the Manitoba government banned new hog barn construction or expansion in southeastern Manitoba, the Red River Valley Special Management Area, including the Capital Region, and the Interlake.

James Hofer, the hog barn manager with Starlite Colony, says in Starlite's case the ban has derailed plans to upgrade an existing 450 sow farrow to finish operation it purchased near Plum Coulee.

Clip-James Hofer-Starlite Colony:
Starlite Colony's approach to dealing with environmental regulations has always been a proactive one where we have adopted the latest technologies and we have always found a way to comply with regulations.

But when it comes to a regulation such as Bill 17, that is a regulation that puts producers in a very tough predicament and it is at the point where we feel it's not workable.

We just don't know how to deal with it.

I think a reasonable approach to dealing with the moratorium itself would be each district or each municipality, farmer needs to be assessed on its own merit and, if there is a location where a farmer has the land base to accommodate the application of the nutrients that are produced at that location and he meets all the requirements, I do not see why that person should be restricted from expansion.

Hofer believes the province needs to revisit the moratorium issue and try to understand what hog producers do and how they do it.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council