Cover Story

Cover Story Sidebar: The six ‘C’s that confront Ontario’s pork industry

There are six major factors affecting the Ontario hog industry, say watchers of     the commodity hog production scene.

Currency: the exchange rate between the Canadian and U.S. dollars.
Based strictly on price, Canadian pork is tough to sell in international markets and is even being displaced in Canada by cheap American pork. There is no sign that the Canadian dollar is going to weaken any time soon. Nor is the American dollar getting stronger as that country continues to pile up deficits and economic concerns grow.

Corn: The major feed ingredient is costly and prices show no sign of easing. Some farmers will continue to feed hogs by growing their own corn. Other will sell their crop.

Cover Story: Three Pork Producers, Three Strategies for Hard Times

by DON STONEMAN


1. The Hunsbergers of Breslau - Early Retirement under pressure from the dollar

Industry prognosticator, producer-processor-promoter, controversial columnist, and some might say visionary, Bob Hunsberger has been a pork producer for 38 years. But likely not much longer. He shipped the last of his 300 sows in mid-winter.

Hunsberger says that he and his wife Marg are lucky. “We have saleable real estate,” he says, though he doesn’t see that there is a big demand for hog farms. They live on 60 acres near Breslau with a small finishing barn. “I can still call myself a hog farmer if I feel like it,” he says.

Cover Story: Are the big American hog integrators losing their competitive advantage?

A combination of economics and environmental regulations make small to medium-sized hog operations in the American Midwest more competitive with the pork-producing giants, says a specialist in global development and the environment. Whether Ontario’s pork producers will also benefit is not so clear

by DON STONEMAN

Demand for corn to make ethanol means that the good times are over for pork integrators in the United States. Will that translate into prosperity at some time in the future for today’s hard-pressed Ontario pork producers? Opinions are divided.

Cover Story: CATASTROPHIC BARN FIRES: Is the National Farm Building Code the culprit?

Some experts say ‘Yes’ and are calling for substantial changes to the code, including mandatory wall-to-ceiling firewalls in hog barns
by MARY BAXTER

Old habits can die hard and no one knows this better than Colleen Wiendels.

Often, before getting into bed at night, she’ll glance down the road from the home she shares with her husband Nick and three daughters near Poplar Hill, just north of London, to check for the yard light on their barn. She does this, even though it’s more than a year since the light was in operation.