The Rural Voice, 2005-06, Page 22The more things change
George Procter of Bodmin Genetics has been an agent
of change in the pork industry, has watched
tremendous changes take place, and, like evergone else,
has had to deal with change
Story and photo by Keith Roulston
George Procter (standing in front of a wall of ribbons won by Bodmin stock
over the years) has witnessed tremendous change in the swine industry.
Arevolution has taken place in
the swine business in the past
decade or more and few
people are better placed to have
witnessed this than George Procter.
As head of Bodmin Genetics, one
of the leaders of Ontario's
competitive swine breeding sector,
Procter has been in the forefront of
the industry, since Bodmin Limited's
breeding operation began in the early
18 THE RURAL VOICE
1970s.
"I couldn't really have imagined
the changes that have taken place,"
says the thoughtful Procter with a
slight shake of his head.
This from a company whose
success has been the Procter family's
ability to see changes coming and
seize and build on them. As Bodmin
Limited celebrates the 50th
anniversary of the founding of the
company this year, the early success
came from spotting the revolution in
poultry. Back then, George's older
brother Ross was working in sales for
Ralston Purina and became. aware of
the changes happening in the poultry
business in the Niagara Peninsula,
then the predominant location of the
industry.
When a farm back home in
Belgrave in northern Huron County
came up for sale in 1955, Ross and
his brother Charles, formed Bodmin
Limited and bought the farm. They
converted the barn for broilers and
soon also had a range turkey
operation.
The two brothers continued to
work at their city jobs while their
father Stewart oversaw the farm's
staff. George also was involved even
as a teenager and managed the turkey
operation while attending Ontario
Agricultural College in Guelph. He
graduated in 1960 and after two years
as assistant Ag Rep for the Ministry
of Agriculture in Brantford, returned
home as manager of the farm, buying
a third share a year later. Charles
returned to the farm in 1963 and
Ross in 1967.
Just as they had jumped into the
changing poultry industry they also
saw the future of the pork industry
and became involved. In the early
1960s Connaught Laboratories
Limited was experimenting with
early high -health pigs. There was an
opportunity for forward-looking
farmers to operate multiplier units for
Connaught and Bodmin became one
of the first participants. But after
about 10 years someone in
management at Connaught took a
look at the economics of the swine
operation and decided it didn't make
sense compared to their other
pharmaceutical -related operations.
In 1974 the brothers decided to
get into purebred stock breeding.
Other nearby pioneers like Bill
Turnbull of Brussels had been
experimenting with high -health
stock.
They started off with 35 sows in
an older barn but when they started
ROP testing in 1979 or 1980 decided
it was time for a new barn that would
have better conditions. They built a
sandwich -wall barn for 100 sows.
The stock for the closed herd for
the new barn was delivered by