Search
Better Farming OntarioBetter PorkBetter Farming Prairies

Better Pork Featured Articles

Better Pork magazine is published bimonthly. After each edition is published, we share featured articles online.


More pork players; more controversy

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

© AgMedia Inc.

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

The Hog Industry Advisory Committee may need a bigger table when it meets on Monday.

Rod DeWolde, Millbrook, chair of District 11, Peterborough County, says he feels comfortable attending committee meetings now that Ontario Pork will have representation there as well.

Ontario Pork withdrew from committee talks earlier this month, citing legal advice surrounding a stay on restructuring while the Farm Products  Appeal Tribunal handles appeals from producers. Last week, says DeWolde, he and other Ontario Pork district chairs received invitations from the committee to attend their weekly sessions.

On Feb 17, the Ontario Farm Products Marketing chair Geri Kamenz sent an open letter to producers with a proposal to set fees that Ontario Pork would charge producers for “universal services.” The proposed fees are $0.80 a hog and $0.20 a weaner.

Ontario Pork's chairman Curtiss Littlejohn says Ontario Pork doesn’t know how the proposed fees were determined, and that has forced a rethinking of Ontario Pork’s position. 

In spite of legal concerns about being at the discussion table during a stay of proceedings, according to Littlejohn, Ontario Pork’s board feels pork producers are even more at risk if Ontario doesn’t have a presence.  The decision was made “after careful consideration,” he told Better Farming this morning.

“At the end of the day, producers need to decide what producers want Ontario Pork to do and what they are prepared to fund to make that happen.”

Kamenz told Better Farming shortly after noon that he was unaware of Ontario Pork’s return. "I don't respond to rumours."

The commission chairman’s letter said the fees were based on those charged in other jurisdictions. Part of the fee Ontario producers pay to their marketing board funds about $1.7 million of pork industry research. By comparison in Manitoba where nine million pigs are sold annually producers pay $500,000 for research.

Dewolde and District 11, which he chairs, is now in the thick of the debate following the Farm Products Marketing Commission ruling last October.

DeWolde says producers in districts 10, 11 and 12 have joined forces to appeal the new governance structure that Ontario Pork forwarded to the commission last December. DeWolde says “it is complicated” but producers from Dufferin County all the way east to the Quebec border say the governance structure was developed hurriedly under an unreasonable deadline imposed by the Commission. “We are quite concerned that this whole process is moving along too quickly,” he said.

“We as producers were working through that process. We feel that decisions were made incorrectly” because of the tight timeline. BF
 

Current Issue

October 2025

Better Pork Magazine

Farms.com Swine News

Experiencing ag and culture in Portugal and Spain

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Canadians can experience agriculture and local culture in Europe next year. The Western Stock Growers’ Association (WSGA) has partnered with Leader Tours for an ag and sightseeing tour from Jan. 24 to Feb. 6, 2026. “We’re heading to Spain first,” Lindsye Murfin, executive director of... Read this article online

New Holland IntelliSense Tech Elevates Crop Efficiency

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

The IntelliSense system features a forward-looking sensor mounted at the cab’s center line, allowing the sprayer to assess crop quality up to 50 feet ahead. It operates in two main modes: variable rate application and spot spraying. In variable rate mode, the system uses sunlight... Read this article online

Ag in the House: Sept. 29 – Oct. 3

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

MPs demanded answers about the carbon tax and Russian fertilizer during question periods last week. On Oct. 1, John Barlow, the Alberta Conservative MP for Foothills and the party’s agriculture critic, wanted to know why the government continues to apply carbon taxes to farmers. Prime... Read this article online

New mandate letter for Alberta’s ag minister

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Alberta’s minister of agriculture and irrigation has new directions from Premier Danielle Smith. Minister RJ Sigurdson received a new mandate letter on Oct. 2 laying out multiple items the premier wants him to focus on going forward. “This mandate is about building opportunity and... Read this article online

Electrifying weeds in P.E.I.

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

An electric shock is defined as a sudden discharge of electricity through a part of the body. Now imagine you’re a weed standing in a field, minding your yield-robbing business when suddenly – zap! That’s what’s going on at AAFC’s Harrington Research Farm in P.E.I. as researchers are... Read this article online

BF logo

It's farming. And it's better.

 

a Farms.com Company

Subscriptions

Subscriber inquiries, change of address, or USA and international orders, please email: subscriptions@betterfarming.com or call 888-248-4893 x 281.


Article Ideas & Media Releases

Have a story idea or media release? If you want coverage of an ag issue, trend, or company news, please email us.

Follow us on Social Media

 

Sign up to a Farms.com Newsletter

 

DisclaimerPrivacy Policy2025 ©AgMedia Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Back To Top