Cover Story

That’s the aim of Stratford veterinarian Doug MacDougald, who feels that too many just pay lip service to this key element of best management practices

by DON STONEMAN

The wind blew down the sign warning visitors that the area around Curtiss Littlejohn’s barns was a biosecure zone last year. The Glenn Morris breeding stock multiplier didn’t bother to replace it until recently.

Like a lot of other cash-strapped producers, Littlejohn had higher priorities. Unlike some, however, Littlejohn didn’t let his biosecurity standards slip. “We are anal about biosecurity,” he says.

Over the past 10 years, the province has introduced at least 40 new regulations that affect the industry, and more are on the way

by MARY BAXTER

Herb Lepp worked 12 years for a hog farmer and then, in 1995, bought his own farm. It was a 250-sow farrow-to-wean operation located near Steinbach in the heart of Manitoba’s hog country, the Red River Valley.

He was one of many Manitoba farmers who saw a solid future in the industry. He shifted production to farrow-to-finish and eventually expanded his sow herd to nearly 600. When Maple Leaf Foods Inc. mothballed its Winnipeg packing facility and moved all slaughter to Brandon, he found a way to accommodate the $3 per hog increase in transportation costs.

Ontario Pork estimates that between 40 and 45 per cent of the province’s hogs will be shipped through Ontario Pork Marketing Division after Dec. 4. Other producers will have the option of doing their marketing themselves or through the marketer of their choice

by DON STONEMAN

When the hog truck rolled away from his barn on a Friday morning in late October, harvest was the first thing on the mind of Binbrook hog finisher Rick Vandenbos.

The 46-year-old had little time for a shower and a coffee before he jumped into his pickup to deliver fuel to his father operating the combine. Was the coming change in hog marketing on his mind?

Buffeted by economies woes and environmental crises, producers in this major hog-producing state have had to deal with multiple new regulations, a moratorium on new barns and the disappearance of many independent producers

By MARY BAXTER
 

Gerald Warren built his first confinement hog barn in 1971 for about US$20,000. Today, the 61-year-old’s North Carolina farm operation and its partners maintain a sow herd of 10,000, as well as 8,800 nursery spaces and 34 finishing barns with a combined capacity of 30,000 spaces.

Reduced premiums, higher welfare standards and extra trucking costs
are all contributing to producer discontent. But duBreton insists that they still are better off than under the free market

by DON STONEMAN

When Mildmay farmer Ron Harkness started raising pigs in April 2009 for the Humane Pork program offered by Quebec packer duBreton, he thought it represented an opportunity for long-term sales. But it wasn’t to be. He shipped his last certified pigs in December.

Veterinarians are finding the PRRS database a valuable tool in tracking new strains of the disease and they hope that it will encourage the industry to move toward the next step, which is elimination

by KATE PROCTER

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) increasingly challenges the pork industry by its ability to mutate and move silently through the countryside.

When Ontario Pork goes lobbying for financial aid in Queen’s Park next time, it won’t be alone. And it will be carrying with it a position that some producers, like Gerald Kolkman and John Nyenhuis of Perth County, find to be on the conservative side.

Last fall, Ontario Pork signed on as part of the Ontario Agriculture Sustainability Coalition (OASC). The other partners include grains and oilseed growers, beef, veal and fruits and vegetables that aren’t grown under glass and plastic. All these agriculture sectors are under financial stress.

“If we are going to get anywhere with the province it will not be as a single commodity,” says Wellington County producer Steve Illick, chair of Ontario Pork’s safety nets committee. “It is not just pork that is in this dilemma.”

British supermarkets and restaurant chains have pledged to clean up their act on the labelling of sausages, pies and ready-made meals containing pork from foreign sources.   
Labelling laws allow products containing pork, chicken, beef and lamb reared overseas to be marked as British as long as it is processed in that country.

According to Britain’s Daily Mail, famous British products such as Melton Mowbray pork pies and Lincolnshire sausages have, in the past, been made with foreign pork from Ireland and the Continent. Supermarkets Asda, Tesco, Sainbury’s and Whitbread recently joined Marks & Spencer, the Co-op, Morrisons and Waitrose in signing on to a voluntary code that promised more honest labels.

While other lenders are more circumspect, Farm Credit Canada (FCC) has set the financial benchmark for talks on lending success as producing pork for $1.40 a kilogram in two years and making this the starting point for financial analysis of a pig farm.

As a result, producers are asking themselves the question: Can they produce pork, cover costs at that level and service their debt?

Henry Homan and his sons, John and Dirk, finish pigs from 275-280 sows on homegrown feed from 450 acres of land in the Niagara Region, near Wellandport. Their farm, Hihojo Ltd., weans 27.1 pigs per sow and ships 6,500 pigs annually. Average corn yield as recorded by Agricorp is 161 bushels per acre.

A pummelled pork industry looks at the hard choices

With prices and exports sharply lower, and the misnamed flu virus adding to the pain, individual producers and industry organizations are struggling to develop a workable survival strategy

by MARY BAXTER

Mike Kolisnyk and Wayne Bartels are two Haldimand County hog producers who are doing what they can to remain afloat during an economic hurricane. But while their two operations may share some marked similarities, like their peers across the province they couldn’t be more divided on which direction to paddle next.