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The 36th annual Banff Pork Seminar officially kicked off last night and sessions move into full swing today.

Advisory Committee chair Daryl Possberg admits, over the past 12 months the swine industry has faced some of the biggest challenges and uncertainties than during any period in recent memory including issues related to North American feedgrain policy, local slaughter capacity and disease concerns but he remains optimistic.

Daryl Possberg-Banff Pork Seminar Advisory Committee
We have some significant advantages here in Canada.

We've been leaders in productivity.

We historically have been leaders in productivity relative to that of other major nations.

We've also, with the situation around the US ethanol industry, the reality is that we could very well have a significant advantage on the feedgrain perspective, especially here in western Canada.

I think that there's opportunities and it's just a matter of realizing it and coming to grips with your own situation in your own operations and understanding what you can do.

Any advice that I would give to a producer is know what you do really well and continue to raise that to the best level that you can and the things that you can't do well, either let somebody else do it or take learning it and getting good at it extremely seriously in the next 12 months.

Possberg notes productivity is very tightly correlated with profitability so maintaining high productivity and least cost production is key.

He says margins continue to get tighter and, if you don't improve what you're doing today, that is not a strategy for staying in business.

ThePigSite News Desk