New hog industry committee has a job list

Friday, February 4, 2011

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

A newly appointed Hog Industry Advisory Committee has its work cut out for it, helping the province’s restructured pork industry to move ahead, says its chair.

One of the committee’s key priorities is how to proceed with a financial protection plan for producers, so that losses are covered if a packer fails, says Jim Clark, a member of the Farm Products Marketing Commission and executive director of the Ontario Cattle Feeders Association. Clark says addressing price reporting — “how do you make the method so it’s not confusing and that it gives good insight overall” — is another priority, as is helping producers understand the new marketing concepts.

Also on the list is applying a universal hog fee to weanling producers. (Before Regulation 439/10, governing the marketing of pigs, took effect Dec. 4, Ontario Pork was not empowered to impose a levy on the sale of weanlings).

Financial protection and market reporting, in particular were “key items that were flagged by the previous committee,” Clark says.

The Hog Industry Advisory Committee is made up of representatives from across the industry. Producers named to the committee are: Wilma Jeffray, Belmore, chair of Ontario Pork, Amy Cronin, Dublin, who sits on Ontario Pork’s safety net committee and Brian Simpson, a producer from near West Lorne.

Processors are represented by: Cathy Acker of Fearman’s Pork Inc., Dan Cohoe of Quality Meat Packers Limited and Bob Hunsberger, Conestoga Meat Packers.

Brad Zantingh of Zantingh Direct Inc was named as a marketer. Allan Van Ravensway of Nature Pork Systems Inc., was named as a “shipper.” (The new regulation defines a shipper as “a person who assembles hogs or transports hogs in any manner” but does not include a producer shipping only his own hogs.) Aker, Clark, Cohoe, Hunsberger and Jeffray were members of the former Hog Industry Advisory Committee.

The appointments for the new committee took effect Jan. 1 and last a year. They were announced this week on the commission’s website. The committee already held its first meeting on Jan. 17.

Clark says the committee will decide how often it meets and notes there are subcommittees that report back to the main committee. BF