The Rural Voice, 2001-01, Page 24•
Possberg praises the healthy state of Ontario's
rural communities, compared to the
heartbreaking site of dying Saskatchewan
communities.
the attraction for the Boersens to
expand their Perth County operation
to 500 -sows as part of six or seven
year plan. The larger operation
justifies two full-time employees and
allows rotation of the "dirty jobs" so
no one gets stuck with them all the
time. It means that in spring planting
time there are people to continue the
barn work while he works in the
fields. Brad explained.
He had first begun raising pigs
about a year before the
couple's marriage in 1986.
He used a rented barn and had 50
sows in a farrow -to -wean operation.
In 1987 they joined Brad's parents in
a partnership on their 100 -acre farm
with a 150 -sow farrow -to -finish
• operation. In 1991 the parents retired
and 'Brad's brother joined the
partnership, renting the farm from the
parents. They increased the herd to
300 sows and repopulated the herd
for health reasons. In 1993 Brad's
brother purchased an operation of his
own and left the partnership. The
couple purchased the farm from the
parents and operated it as Bradi
Farms.
At that time half the finishing pigs
and many of the gestation sows were
20 THE RURAL VOICE
being kept in rented barns. In 1995
they built a four -room nursery barn
and renovated the existing barns to
accommodate all the sows. They
purchased another 150 -acre farm in
1997 and built a 1,100 head finishing
barn to accommodate the hogs they
Perth couple describes
different model
for pork production
had in rented barns. They also
switched from a continuous flow to a
two-week batch farrowing system,
mostly for herd health but also with
expansion in mind.
That expansion took place in
2,000 when they increased the sow
herd to 500 head.
A 500 -sow herd brings some
efficiencies such as being able to
utilize ultra -sound pregnancy testing
and on-farm semen collection. Still,
the farm's size is small enough that
"As owner -managers we still see
every hog every day," Brad said.
"We're looking after the small
things."
Th. Boersens are very aware of
the public perception of "factory"
farms versus family farms. At 500
sows, they're on the upper limit of
what people will accept as a family
farm, Brad says. They're also
concerned about environmental
issues and test their manure every
time before they spread it on the
land.
But over and over they came back
to the family aspect of their
operation. "Five hundred sows
seemed to me a nice family -sized
farm," Brad explained. "It's large
enough to allow a son to enter into
the business. We prefer to stay
independent and potter away at 500
sows."
"It's where we want to be," added
Diane who said the income from the
farm is enough for her to be able to
work on the farm and be there when
the four children come home from
school. "It's what we want to do and
it's where we want to raise our
children."
And that impressed big-time
operator Florian Possberg from Big
Sky, Saskatchewan.0