The Rural Voice, 1985-12, Page 68PERTH COUNTY PORK PRODUCERS' ASSOC.
or
Plan for annual, prepare film for use in schools, and
background on stabilization plan.
The directors of the Perth County
Pork Producers Association met
November 7 at the OMAF board-
room in Stratford, with chairman
Ray Stock presiding.
The main item on the agenda was
the proposed format of the up-
coming annual meeting on January
24, 1986. It is hoped that personnel
from the Ontario board will be
available to discuss marketing and
stabilization and any matters that
local producers may want to talk
about with their provincial represen-
tatives.
Suggestions to change the number
of township directors were also
discussed. Presently Perth County
has 29 directors who also represent
the county's producers as delegates to
the provincial board's annual and
semi-annual meetings. There are two
directors elected for each of the 11
townships plus 7 directors at large. It
was suggested that the townships
should have only one director each,
allowing for a relatively large number
of 19 directors at large. Fears were ex-
pressed that since attendance at the
county annual meeting is often only
10 per cent or Tess, under this propos-
ed set-up special interest groups could
load the annual meetings and
dominate the county association by
electing a large number of directors
of their choice. The present pro-
cedure is laid down by the constitu-
tion and can only be changed by the
annual meeting and by approval of
the provincial board.
President Ray Stock reported that
he and Peter Huitema participated in
a meeting with public school teachers
as members of the Perth County
"Agriculture in the Classroom"
Committee. The committee is made
up of members of the various com-
modity groups and the Perth Women
for the Support of Agriculture. The
objectives of the committee are to co-
ordinate the educational efforts of
the agricultural organizations within
the county and to assist teachers to
find resource people and resource
material to present an accurate pic-
ture of today's agriculture in their
classrooms. The Perth County Pork
Producers have prepared a 12 -minute
slide and audio presentation for use
66 THE RURAI VOICE
in public schools, illustrating pork
production in Perth County.
Barrie, the new OMAF swine
specialist. Ed serves the counties of
specialist. Ed serves the counties of
Perth, Huron, and Oxford and works
out of the Stratford office. He told
the meeting that there had been an
unusually high number of problems
with feed refusal due to pink mold
when feeding high -moisture corn.
These problems only developed after
the corn had been stored for 10 days,
indicating that the mold continued to
grow in the silos.
Board member Willy Keller
reported that there is a proposal for a
promotion program to be operated at
the national level together with other
provinces under the Canadian Pork
Council. The cost of the program
would be five cents per hog. Presently
the OPPMB operates a provincial
promotion program at a cost of about
25 cents per hog. He also told the
meeting that the board is alarmed
over a proposed resolution by the ex-
ecutive of the OFA to their annual
meeting in November. The resolution
asks the commodity groups to place
the highest priority on the establish-
ment of supply -managed marketing
systems. The OPPMB feels that the
resolution infringes on the right of
the marketing boards of the various
commodity groups to make their own
decisions. Willy somewhat surprised
everybody when he announced that
he will resign as provincial board
member if somebody else will run for
the position. John Lichti, North
Easthope, indicated that he would be
interested in taking on the job. Willy
Keller has over the years been a most
dedicated worker on behalf of On-
tario pork producers. It will be with
regret that many of us see him step
down.
Stabilization: at the time of writing
the situation is the same as it has been
for the past two or three years. We
are still waiting for an announce-
ment. Perth MP Harry Brightwell
says that the Honourable John Wise
is ready to sign, but wants to get more
provinces into the scheme. According
to Helmut Loewen, manager of the
OPPMB, a tripartite program will
possibly be in place starting January
1, 1986. Rather than making the pro-
gram retroactive, 1985 will be covered
by an ASA payment for the second
and third quarter, possibly enriched
by the province to match the payment
given to Alberta producers. The
details of the proposed tripartite pro-
gram had not been finalized at the
time of writing. According to Helmut
Loewen, there is a chance that an
agreement could be signed by the end
of November for a tripartite program
that would possibly look as follows.
First, participation in the program
would be voluntary. The contract
would run for 10 years. A producer
would have to give three years' notice
to opt out of the program. It would
take two years to get back into the
program after opting out, or, for pro-
ducers who did not join the program
initially, to sign up at a later date. On
the sale of a farm, the contract could
be transferred to the new owner. The
contract would be limited to the
average production of the previous
two years. Premiums would be paid
in equal shares by the federal govern-
ment, the provincial government, and
the producers to a maximum of 3 per
cent of the current price each. If there
were enough money in the fund, no
further premiums would be required.
If the fund were short, it could bor-
row money. There would be no re-
fund of premiums on cancellation of
the contract. Pay -out from the fund
would be quarterly and based on 95
per cent of the average of the gross
margin of the corresponding three-
month period of the past five years.
The program would cover only inter-
nal consumption, that is export sales
would be excluded. A 35/65 split may
be possible both in premiums and
benefits between producers of weaner
pigs and market hogs.
There are a number of questions
that are not answered yet. If and
when the official announcement is
eventually made, more details will
become public. The program certain-
ly is not designed to cover cost of pro-
duction and what benefit it will pro-
vide during a string of unprofitable
years is uncertain.fl
Submitted by Hans Feldman