Behind the Lines

Fewer days to market and less backfat. Generations of Ontario’s conventional pork producers have striven to improve on those goals. Along the way, they have adapted practices to give consumers more abundant and cheaper food. Now, for producers with operations that are “are a fit” for production with different goals, there are different market opportunities. Witness the recent interest in food trends towards local food and also towards specialty products such as Berkshire pork.

Three industry leaders, three different decisions.

As the pork industry goes through unparalleled turmoil, producers are having to make unparalleled, and difficult, decisions. For this issue’s cover story, writer Don Stoneman spoke to three industry leaders who made three different choices about their future as pork producers. This story, profiling the times of producers Bob Hunsberger, Phil Anwender and Gilbert Vanden Heuvel, starts on page 6.

Once the mainstay of farmer feeders across grain-growing areas, pork production south of the border has accumulated in a few hands over not much more than a decade. While the integrators themselves have touted the benefits of multi-site production and sow-to-packinghouse ownership, an American specialist in global development and environment has put some numbers to made-in-Washington policies that promoted soybean and corn production.

A barn fire is arguably the ultimate challenge for any livestock producer. From personal experience, I can say that the horror never really goes away. It’s hard to describe the inevitable feelings of failure, loss and uncertainty. When the unthinkable occurs, however, there is little time for feelings. Instead, you need to draw on all of your knowledge and abilities to make the best of a bad situation.

Fires, their aftermath and what producers can do to prevent them or mitigate losses are the subject of this issue’s cover story. In her first effort at writing for Better Pork, our new field editor, Mary Baxter, spoke with producers in southwestern Ontario who have lived through the agony and heartbreak of such disasters. She also talked to insurance company leaders, fire fighters and the agriculture ministry.

It’s not just the frequency of the fires that is a concern, but also the speed at which they spread through buildings that may now be as large as 100,000 square feet and cost millions of dollars to build and even more to stock.

Starting on page 20, we continue with our series on Ontario producers grappling with PRRS. This month’s article, by Kate Procter, contains some surprises as well as challenges in monitoring actual PRRS status in barns. Perhaps the outcome that surprised me most was the situation with a producer we’ve been following who has had excellent results in his battle against PRRS. He’s someone who is now achieving a respectable 25.3 pigs per sow per year.

Clearly, he has what it takes for success. Yet he is considering his future in the pork industry. Given the economic uncertainty facing our industry, I suspect he’s not alone in his thinking. Stay tuned for our next update in the February issue.

Also in this issue, swine nutritionist Janice Murphy looks at multiple feeding of sows in group housing situations so that bully sows don’t dominate the bunk. Does the technique work? The story starts on page 38.

As always, the Europeans keep forging ahead. Norman Dunn, who writes for us from Germany, looks at labour worries in Denmark, price concerns in Britain and pork tastes in Germany. There’s always something new in the pork industry and Better Pork keeps bringing it to you.

ROBERT IRWIN