Plans to expand Big Sky's hog barn operations from Ogema into the RM of Norton near Pangman continue to be on hold as the province's hog industry tries to deal with a continued shortage of slaughter facilities.

There are efforts underway to build a new slaughter plant for Saskatchewan, but that is in the planning stages still and are at least two years away from reality, said Florian Possberg, CEO of Big Sky Farms.

"We're having to export more of our hogs for slaughter to the U.S. The plant at Brandon said they would double-shift their hog plant, but unfortunately they haven't done that yet. They're working on it. Meantime, Maple Leaf said they'd shut down their hog plant in Winnipeg, so we've got a real issue," said Possberg.

In addition to the lack of slaughter capacity, another issue facing the industry today is the United States' new "Country of Origin" labelling for hogs that are raised and finished in Canada and brought in to the U.S. for slaughter. "That will potentially be negative for hogs finished in Canada," he said, explaining this situation has forced Big Sky to move to counteract this situation.

"The hogs we produce at Ogema will continue to be sold in Western Canada. However, we're moving some of our finishing hogs from other sites to the U.S. to be finished, because hogs finished in Canada for slaughter in the U.S. we fear will be significantly discounted," said Possberg.

Originally there was hope this situation could be rectified when an announcement was made in June of 2005 that a new hog slaughter plant would be built. The wheels started to come off in October of 2006, however, when it was then announced that not only would the proposed plant not be built, but their existing plant would also be shut down.

"Work is continuing on building a new plant. It's a big project, however; we haven't got a firm proposal that says we're ready to go ahead with construction. It's still in the planning phase, and in any event, it'll take two years to get a plant up and running. So in the meantime, we've got this period in which we're trying to deal with the current reality," said Possberg.

The reason it will take at least two years for a new slaughter plant is the cost (anywhere from $50 to $150 million) and the track record of slaughter plants, namely that they don't seem to do well in this province, said Possberg; therefore the partners in this proposal want to make sure everything is done right before going ahead with it.

Asked how hog prices are right now, Possberg said, "Hog producers are struggling. The Canadian dollar is really hurting our ability to make money. Also, feed grain prices have gone up quite a bit in the last year."

He added the industry sees these cycles of prices coming and going, and predicted the industry will bounce back again.