Happy 2023, welcome to the first edition of the year. I am super excited as we enter into the 27th year of bringing the latest hog news and information direct to you, the producers and fellow industry members. Thanks so very much for your continued support, encouragement, readership and financial support from advertising which enables me to print and mail out each and every issue six times per year. 
Only a few short weeks ago many in the hog sector gathered for the Banff Pork Seminar, with 783 registered attendees. You could tell from the congestion in the hallways, packed aisles in the trade show area, the vast numbers along the back wall during keynote speakers and for sure the line ups at lunch and coffee stations. The staff at the Banff Springs Hotel did a great job getting everybody through efficiently. Kudos to the organizing committee, program directors and Ashley for doing a tremendous job putting together a solid line up of speakers and sessions. Congratulations to the RO Ball Young Scientist Award winner, Jessica Vehof and Kara Stewart recipient of this year’s George Foxcroft Lectureship award. Also awarded was the FX Aherne award for Innovation, for their Weaning Ramp winners were Barak Doell and Robert Lafreniere from HyLife. See coverage beginning on page 5. 
What seems like a long time ago now was the one-day show on December 14th, Prairie Livestock Expo. That show also was very well attended, the first time back since 2018. Traffic around the trade show booths was very busy, and at times hard to walk up and down some aisles. Of course, the highlight of the day is Pork Quality Competition, 24 hogs were entered from 12 Colonies. Jason Care had the challenging job of judging, the first-place carcass scored 101 points out of a possible 111, the highest points ever awarded. All pork was donated to Siloam Mission and Winnipeg Harvest since 1996 a staggering 152,000 lbs of it. Charity also was huge winner of the day with all top 10 winnings being donated to various charities from HEART Team, to STARS, to Heart of Truth, to various hospitals and care centers. Grand Champion and 7th place went to Starlite Colony, Reserve Champion was awarded to Woodland Colony. See story on page 29. 
While in Banff the Canadian Pork Council had a board meeting. After 15 years on the Council, eight of them as chair, Rick Bergmann retired. Many thanks to Rick for always being available to take questions, share a comment and even offering some advice to myself and my amazing writing team. Congratulations to René Roy who takes over as chair, Scott Peters as 1st vice chair along with Brent Moen as 2nd vice chair and Jack Dewit as treasurer. 
In addition to follow up coverage from Banff Pork Seminar & Prairie Livestock Expo there are stories about locking in future prices, time management, Canadian processors getting back into China, Swine Cluster research, a new whole hog program that features a youth ambassador plus much, much more. 
In just over two weeks from when I am penning this many of us will be in Swift Current for the sold-out Saskatchewan Livestock Expo. The one-day show is on Thursday February 9th, starting at 8:30am. My booth is right at the front by the carcass cooler so be sure to stop by say hi and fill out the door prize draws. The Cramer Cup series will begin at 5pm. In addition to the trophies being handed out, charity once again is the big winner of the day. Follow up coverage will be in the April edition. 
As always, I am only a phone call or email away. Prairie Hog Country, Box 5536, Leduc, Alberta
T9E 2A1, 780.986.0962, fax 780.980.9640 or 
email: hogcountry@shaw.ca
Talk to you in April.•