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Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium celebrates 40th anniversary

Aug 29, 2017
By Kaitlynn Anderson
Assistant Editor, North American Content, Farms.com

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Two-day event features a wide panel of experts

By Kaitlynn Anderson

Staff reporter

Farms.com

For the past 40 years, Saskatchewan Pork has hosted an annual Pork Industry Symposium.

This year’s event will run from Nov. 14 to 15 and will be held at the Saskatoon Inn and Conference Centre.

Some of the topics to be discussed include:

Adapting to electronic sow feeding systems with Curtiss Littlejohn from CanArm AgSystems
Zoonotic diseases with Dr. Susan Detmer from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine
Mastering time management on the farm with Chuck Schwartau of the University of Minnesota
Increasing profitability of the livestock sector through feed processing with Dr. Rex Newkirk from the Canadian Feed Research Centre

“The price to attend the two-day conference is $195, which includes a banquet ticket,” Patty Riley, Financial Administrator at Saskatchewan Pork, said in an email to Farms.com. “We typically have around 250 delegates attending each year.”

For a full agenda of the symposium, click here.

Video: Back On The Fields | Cutting Alfalfa Hay| Crop Talk

We are cutting our second-cut alfalfa hay! Our machinery hasn't been repaired, but the weather is clear, so we take our opportunity to get back on the fields making hay. The alfalfa crop was ready to harvest, and any delays would result in poor quality feed for our sheep, so we decided to go ahead and get that mower rolling. We have a little crop talk about how we cut the hay with our John Deere hydrostatic mower, how we lay the hay out flat in rows to help it dry quicker, and how the two different plantings in that hay field have developed at varying rates and densities. We discuss the quality of the alfalfa hay and show how differing percentages of grasses mixed in with the alfalfa make a difference in the volume of the hay harvested. Hay is the primary feed source on our sheep farm. Getting it done just right is imperative for sheep farming, sheep health, and sheep care. Quality feed sets the stage for producing productive and profitable sheep and allows for feeding throughout the winter season when pasture grazing is no longer an option for those farmers raising sheep in cold climates such as Canada. While in the hay field, we also have a look at the adjacent corn crop and marvel at how well it has developed in such a short period of time.