Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett, who as chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has overseen more than $50 billion in acquisitions, said the 2002 purchase of farm-products provider CTB Inc. was “a lucky day.”

“We’re going to own CTB forever,” Buffett told employees of the Milford, Indiana-based firm. “The operational results, the acquisitions that you’ve made, everything has exceeded my expectations.”

CTB, which sells feeders and stalls under the PigTek and Chore-Time Hog brands, has expanded abroad since the Berkshire takeover by buying businesses in Israel, Germany and the Netherlands. Chief Executive Officer Victor Mancinelli, who persuaded Buffett to buy the firm seven years ago, is making “excellent returns,” according to the Berkshire annual letter to shareholders published this year.

“Over the next 100 years we’re going to have some bad farm years and we’re going to have some bad years in the economy,” Buffett said in the address, posted on CTB’s Web site and dated September 2009. “But just look at the progress we’ve made over time. And I hope you’re doing more of the same.”

Buffett, 79, has responded to the U.S. recession by cutting manufacturing jobs and closing facilities. He oversees businesses ranging from insurance and ice cream to corporate jets and power plants. Profit from the firm’s “other manufacturing” units, such as CTB, paint-maker Benjamin Moore and apparel company Fruit of the Loom, fell 18 percent to $1.68 billion in 2008.

Breeding Herds

Buffett didn’t respond to a request for comment sent in an e-mail to assistant Carrie Kizer.

Two years of high feed costs and waning pork demand prompted U.S. hog producers to cut their breeding herds to the smallest size in at least 36 years, according to a Department of Agriculture report last month. Glenn Grimes, a livestock economist at the University of Missouri, has estimated that hog farmers have lost about $4 billion since September 2007 as corn rose to a record in 2008 and the H1N1 virus curbed pork demand.

Berkshire’s acquisition of CTB was valued at $177 million, according to Bloomberg data. Six years later, in 2008, the unit produced pretax earnings of $89 million, Buffett said in the annual letter. CTB bought six companies in the interim, including Swine Services Specialists Inc. and Porcon group of Deurne, the Netherlands.

Poultry Farms

CTB also provides equipment for drying and storing grain, and tools for poultry farmers like egg counters and nests.

Buffett built Berkshire into a $150 billion company by buying businesses like auto insurer Geico Corp. and stocks including Coca-Cola Co. that he believes have competitive advantages and enduring brand popularity. He said in the address to employees that he refused an initial proposal to bid for CTB, reversing his decision only after Mancinelli made a trip to Omaha, Nebraska, where Berkshire is based.

“Boy was that a lucky day for Berkshire,” Buffett said. “I spent a little time talking to him and I knew that he was the right guy and CTB was the right company.”

Buffett has compared equity picking to agriculture, saying that when he selects a stock for Berkshire, he looks at the company’s long-term earnings power and disregards fluctuations in the share price, just like he ignores land values for the farm he owns.

“I don’t get a quote on it every day, I look to the performance of the asset,” Buffett told CNBC in an interview in March. “For all I know, that farm I bought, you know, 20 years ago, it may have bobbed around 8, you know, $1,800 an acre, 1,200, I don’t even know anything about that. I just know that the farm, over time, will produce 120 bushels of corn per acre. So I’ve never tried to predict stock prices.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Frye in New York at afrye@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 6, 2009 12:31 EDT