Maple Leaf Achieves Full Double Shift Capacity
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In March Maple Leaf announced plans move to a full double shift at its Brandon hog slaughtering plant with the goal of boosting capacity to 86 thousand hogs per week.
The announced expansion, which was contingent on additional waste water treatment plant implements, followed waste water treatment plant upgrades in 2007 that resulted in an 85 per cent reduction in nitrogen levels and a 94 per cent reduction in phosphorous levels allowing Maple Leaf to increase processing capacity to 75 thousand hogs per week.
Maple Leaf director of procurement Jason Manness says the facility is now operating at full double shift capacity.
Jason Manness-Maple Leaf Consumer Foods
We've had a successful run here to double shift and we've basically been able to ramp up to a full double starting at the end of September and moving here through to October so we've been running at 80 thousand plus hogs a week for the last three or four weeks.
Certainly there's been changes with the pig movements south given some of the positions of late with U.S. packers.
As we already ramped up to full double shift in Brandon there's been limited opportunity.
We're trying to find opportunities at Brandon to accommodate some additional hogs but, as I said, given the fact that we are at already at full double shift it has been challenging.
I'm not sure but I believe there's been market hogs moving to other destinations in western Canada at this time.
Manness says, in addition to ramping up to a full double shift, Maple Leaf has added some weekend Saturday slaughter days to help accommodate additional hogs, including hogs backed up from the company's own contract producers.
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