Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Play Audio Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 1495

The General Manager of Sask Pork says the amalgamation of Saskatchewan's annual dairy and pork expos promises to be a huge benefit to both industries.

Saskatchewan's pork and dairy industries have joined forces with the Saskatoon Prairieland Park Corporation to host the 2004 Western Canadian Livestock Expo.

The two day event kicks off tomorrow at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon and will bring together companies that supply and service the pork, dairy and other livestock industries.

Sask Pork General Manager Neil Ketilson says, in the past, the dairy and poultry industries have each held their own events and it was felt combining the two would create a number of synergies and make a lot of sense.

"Last year, for the pork industry for an example, we had five exhibitors at Pork Expo. This year, on the combined event, we will have 176 booths representing 111 companies so it's a very significant increase from the year before.

All the suppliers and the people that service the industry, for the hogs for example, also have some common alliances with the dairy industry and also the feather industry and the people in the poultry business.

Really the three commodity groups have a lot of synergies in terms of the type of services they receive, the feed manufacturing, the nutritional kinds of information available from the various companies, the financial aspects to it, marketing issues.

There's a whole number of issues out there that are really unique to each operation but have some commonalties. "

Ketilson points out this is the first combined show and he's confident it has a bright future.

He says, with the Saskatchewan dairy industry scheduled to host the national dairy show next year, next year's Western Canadian Livestock Expo will be even bigger.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.