The Rural Voice, 1979-07, Page 17The directors say:
Editor's note: Directors of any farm commodity group who'd like
to write an occasional letter to their members are invited to use
this space monthly in Rural Voice, free of charge, on a first come,
first served basis. This month we have a letter from a pork board
director. Let's hear from another commodity next month. The
deadline for inclusion in the next Rural Voice is July 16.
Pork producers warned watch for pneumonia
Dear Pork Producer:
Haemophilius Pneumonia seems on the wane, but keep alert
for any sudden deaths in your pigs. That is the message from the
Guelph people. It comes in waves and you better not get caught
in the next wave because you were too busy to take that expired
pig to the vet.
Meantime, the Ontario Pork Board has committed $20,000 in
each of the next two years for research at the U. of Guelph to find
means of preventing the disease. The government has matched
it with another $20,000 in each year.
Work at the new Stratford assembly yard has started, just
ahead of mounting complaints about the old place. Urban people
just don't seem to recognize a good smell.
The pork promotion program goes on as it has been in the last
few years and anyone wathcing TV can testify to that. I hear
mixed opinions on the newest commercials. Some think them
funny, and others say they are dreadful.
The newest promotion effort, the novel idea of the pork
specialty restaurant, has been going now for two months, and
the response from the Toronto public has been very favourable.
Twice a day, for dinner and for lunch, the place is crowded. And
all that without any advertising.
The Export Committee, which had been a sub -committee of
the Executive Committee of the OPPMB, has been made into a
separate standing committee, and is now called the Market
Development Committee. I have been elected its first chairman.
Most of the work thus far has been in collecting data from all
over the world, to find out where pork is produced and
consumed, who imports and who exports, and what are the
possibilities for expansion.
A study authorized by the Research Committee during the last
two years has shown some promising possibilities in the
Cariibean. an area that was considered practically closed by the
packing houses. We are already looking at wa- - and means to
make use of this study and sell some of our surplus pork there.
It is my opinion that we have to sell more and more of our pork
"off -shore" that is, out of the continent, if we are to maintain the
pork production that has been built up in the last three years. We
have gone from just over 50,000 hogs a week to the present
75,000 and the expansion has not stopped yet. Ours and
independent economists have figured that the basic, or cost
price, for hogs, is now around the $70 per hundred pouid mark.
That means that anyone who built a new hog barn this or last
year with borrowed money, must have that $70/cwt or lose
money. That means also that if the barn is partly or wholly paid
for, the producer lives off his equity, now that the price is in the
low sixties.
The hope that the USDA would be wrong once again in their
forecast seems to be in vain. A lot of pork is coming on the
market in the Mid -West States, and that drives our price down as
well. A contributing factor is the strike by independent truckers
that has reportedly closed down some packers already.
How long the slump will last is anybody's guess. If patterns of
other years hold again, and no one can guarantee they will, the
rising price of all grains will soon induce a great number of
marginal hog producers to sell their sows and sell the grain
instead. If that happens we will have a short slump. Let's hope it
does.
Knowing all these factors may help some hopefuls to make a
reasoned decision about going ahead with that new barn, or to
wait a little. Sincerely,
Adrian Vos,
OPPMB Director
ATTENTION r'`"
e° FARMERS "sro
We are now paying $5.00 = $15.00 for fresh
dead or disabled cows & horses over 500 lbs.
All calves & pigs picked up free of charge.
FAST EFFICIENT SERVICE
24 hrs. a day 7 days a week.
HURON DEAD STOCK
REMOVAL
CaII Collect 482-9811
Call us first
you won't have to call anyone else
THE RURAL VOICE/JULY 1979 PG. 15