The company currently building a hog barn in Ogema will receive a $15 million investment from the provincial government.

Big Sky Farms Inc. will see the money come from the Crown Investments Corporation, to help with the cost of the new facility in Ogema and another hog barn being built in Rama.

"We are very excited about this expansion and what it will mean to our ability to compete with other large producers in Western Canada," said Florian Possberg, president and CEO of Big Sky Farms and one of the company's founding members.

Big Sky Farms, headquartered in Humboldt, includes three farrow to finish hog production facilities in the Humboldt, Kelvington and Preeceville areas. The company is expanding, at a total cost of $60 million, to include facilities in Ogema and Rama.

Construction on the barn complex in Ogema is already underway, with full commercial production expected by late spring 2001. Construction on the barn complex in Rama, located 100 kilometres northwest of Yorkton, will begin later this month.

The expansion is expected to create 90 jobs and increase economic activity for suppliers, feed growers and other businesses.

Each of the new facilities will be capable of housing 5,000 sows at a time and producing 116,000 market hogs a year. When combined with the existing hog barns, the company will be capable of producing 400,000 hogs annually.

Crown Investments Corporation Minister John Nilson says the company has satisfied all of the environmental requirements needed to obtain permits for the new barns, including completion of geo-technical studies of soil conditions.

"Saskatchewan has very well-designed safeguards to protect ground water supplies and surface water supplies from manure contamination, and all conditions have been met for these new barns," he said.

At public meetings held in the Ogema area on the subject of the hog barns prior to construction, no adamant opposition to the project was expressed.