Ottawa - Paying pork producers to bury their sows or send them for dog food may be the latest sign that the industry is in uncharted territory. Details are sketchy on the newly announced federal Cull Breeding Swine Program, save that entire barns must be liquidated, stay empty for three years and no cull sows are to enter the human food chain.
Up until late last year, Phil Anwender ran a 500-sow, farrow to finish operation. But in December, as the loonie’s value rose and market hog prices crashed, this Sebringville-area producer decided it was time to get out.
Like hundreds of other pork producers in Ontario, Cameron McLean, president of the Kent Pork Producers, is feeling the impact of what the pork industry has dubbed “the perfect storm:” a soaring loonie, escalating feed costs and plummeting hog prices. Reached the day after a major federal announcement, the 200-sow weaner operator, and 25-year veteran of the industry, also has questions about how the measures will be administered.
LONDON — Ontario pork producers, in the midst of what many are calling a “perfect storm” are trying to determine if this is a “normal” low in the traditional hog cycle or part of something more threatening. With another dismal year predicted, individual producers must decide whether to stick it out in the hope that eventual higher prices will make up the difference or cut their losses now.