| Partners In Pork | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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In the fall off 1994, P.I.P started construction of a 1200 sow farrow to wean unit 4 miles west and 1.5 miles north of Rimbey. The building was 156 ft. X 365 ft. consisting of a breeding/dry sow area, 8 farrowing rooms, 8 weaner rooms, and a service, office and shower facilities for staff. Approximately 600 weaners were sold weekly to Quality Feeds in Lacombe. P.I.P trucked these weaners to various farms in Central Alberta. The unit was originally managed by Ciaran Ormond along with 4 full time staff and 1 part time student.
In 1998, P.I.P started construction on a second 1200 sow unit located 4 miles west and 3.5 miles south of Rimbey. The unit was called County Line Farms (C.L.F.). Partners in Pork welcomed Mark Trautman as a partner. Mark Trautman farmed approximately 1800 acres and, like his father-in-law Bruce Tona, he wanted to diversify and receive the manure for his land. The unit was built with the same basic plan as the P.I.P. unit but with a lot of staff input on correcting any deficiencies on the original unit. Originally, the barn was built for breeding stock. Gilts were sold to Heartland in Saskatchewan. Half the females were the Chinese Meishan cross. But due to fat levels of the Meishans and lack of sales, this unit quickly became a commercial herd.
At the same time we decided to finish out some of our own weaners and contracted a finisher barn approximately 4500 places and Herb Holoboff built a 5000 place finishing barn near Spruceview. Over the next few years we started contracting more feeder bans with the intent of finishing all our pigs and selling them to Olymel in Red Deer.
In September of 2000, construction started on a third 1200 sow unit located 7 miles west and 2 miles north of Rimbey. The unit was called Rimbeek Farms (R.B.F.) and was built very similar to C.L.F. |
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