The Rural Voice, 1998-04, Page 52What's going up?
After years when farm building contractors were
so busy customers had to wait in line,
1998 seems to be slowing down slightly. There's plenty of
pricing but not a lot of orders so far this spring
Western Ontario has
seen a change in the
landscape in recent
years as new farm
buildings
mushroomed.
Expansion in pork
(top) and dairy (left)
led the way. Many
dairy farmers are
enlarging their
operations to become
large enough to make
free -stalls (bottom)
economical.
48 THE RURAL VOICE
Thc pace of the barn building
boom that has affected western
Ontario the past few years
seems to have slowed, at least until
good weather or good prices spur
activity.
Many of the region's builders
contacted say there are still plenty of
people getting prices for new
buildings, but the number
committing to construction lags
behind the past few years.
Three waves of growth have
driven the farm construction business
in recent years. First came expansion
in the broiler industry followed by
construction of three -site swine bzrns
and new, larger free -stall dairy barns.
While there's less activity than in
past years, Fred Groenestege of Fred
Groenestege Construction Limited
predicts there is still strong demand
and builders will still be busy. He
predicts more activity in poultry this
year.
Frank Kains, OMAFRA's swine
structures and equipment specialist,
says spirits of pork producers have
been dampened by the current price
slump and by the concerns, created
by the Asian currency crisis, about
the long term for pork production in
Ontario. Producers are used to the
variability of the pork cycle, he says,
but much of the optimism in recent
years has been built on the premise
that Ontario would supply the needs
of the growing Asian appetite for
pork. With the economic problems of
Asia, however, that future is clouded.
Like some of the builders
interviewed, Kains sees the trend
toward building larger units
continuing in pork. When the
segregated early weaning (SEW)
movement started in Ontario, the
emphasis was on 300-400 sow barns,
creating enough pigs to supply an
eight -farm production loop with
1,000 head nurseries and finishing
barns. But those smaller nurseries
and finishing barns weren't large
enough to make efficient use of
labour and now there are lots of
2,000-4,000 head nurseries and 2,000
head finishing barns going up, he
said. There's interest in expanding
the sow herd size so there won't be
as many sources of weaner pigs
going into the nurseries and finishing
barns, thus reducing the potential for
breakdowns in biosecurity in the
loop.