This issue’s cover story focuses on producers who want to stay in pork farming by re-financing and, in particular, reports their concerns about the federal government’s Hog Industry Loan Loss Reserve Program (HILLRP), announced last October.
Anecdotal reports point to a slow uptake of this program, which is supposed to backstop lenders who provide credit to risky accounts. One measure of movement is the rate of the payback of emergency advances from ACC Farmers Financial, which had channelled emergency advance payments to pork producers. Those advances must be paid back by producers enrolling in the HILLRP.