One year ago the North American hog industry was facing what has been described as its worst ever crisis.

The economic squeeze virtually halted the sale of new hog equipment.

Crystal Springs managing director Jonathan Kleinsasser, who was on hand last week for World Pork Expo in Des Moines, says the challenges forced the company to diversify and, more importantly, develop products to help producers become more efficient.

Jonathan Kleinsasser-Crystal Springs Hog Equipment

We suffered together through those tough times together with the farmers, with our customers and I think we all came out better at the end.

Having suffered through this we learned a lot and from our perspective had to learn to operate leaner, to be innovative and come with products that once it bounces back will be in high demand and that is products that make you become more efficient.

Every farmer has to be prepared for crisis like this and how do you get prepared?

You get prepared by being as efficient as you possibly can be that when these tough times come you're prepared, that you can weather the storm.

If you're a producer that produced only 20 pigs per sow or as low as 15 or 16 pigs per sow you don't even have a chance to survive when the going gets tough.

If you're a producer that produces 30 pigs per sow and the genetics are out there to do it, certainly we have Canadian genetics that produce 30 plus pigs per sow per year, that added to equipment that will improve your feed conversion, maximise all that you're bound to weather the storms a lot better.

Mr Kleinsasser says the mood in the North American pork industry today is 100 per cent improved from this time one year ago and that's fueling a huge increase in business.