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The Rural Voice, 1993-04, Page 73ir County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER PERTH ifigk John Crowley, President R.R. 2, Gadshill, ON NOK 1J0 393-6403 ' The Rural Voice is provided to Perth County Pork Producers by the PCPPA. Pigs in the jungle and franchise farming Opinions expressed herein may not necessarily reflect the views of the Perth County Pork Producers. No, these are not wild; in fact, they are Pig Improvement Company stock, animals familiar to many Ontario producers. They are on the farm of Carlos Patron in the area of Cancun, Mexico. Kurt Keller presented a video of his recent trip there at the March meeting of the Perth County Pork Producers Association. The 1500 sows are divided into three 500 -sow units located in the jungle. The buildings are new and naturally -ventilated. The approximate building cost farrow to finish for 500 sows is $1,000,000. The average born alive is 21.6 and the average weaned is 19.6. Weaning is at 21 days and all in, all out is practised in every area except the finishing unit. The average days to market is 176. The rooms are very clean and disinfected, but they have to deal with a number of diseases, including Hog Cholera, African Swine Fever, Mystery Disease, Pseudorabies, Haemophilus Pneumonia and T.G.E. This particular farm has its own slaughtering facility and supplies 95 per cent of the pork in the Cancun area. Weaner pigs are sold for $100 Canadian and a 100 kg. live animal sells for $204. At the present time there is a tariff on live U.S. hogs of 15 per cent of market value. Feed costs approximately 50 per cent more than our prepared feed. As might be expected labour costs are quite reason- able by our standards. The pay struc- ture is based on 12 -hour days, seven days a week with three days off every 12 days. The manager receives $20 per day, assistant manager $15 and $10 for a regular worker. They have 30 work- ers for 1500 sows and, apparently, they are quite satisfied with their wages. Also at the March meeting was Helmuth Spreitzer, one of the directors to the provincial board from the North Zone. In his board report he referred to a recent meeting with the major packers. Two things that he said stood out very clearly: packing plants are running under capacity and they (the packers) cannot pay another dime for our hogs. Of course this statement begged the question and it was asked, "Why don't they bid an extra dollar for a load of hogs to keep the processing lines full and the plant operating more efficiently?" Mr. Spreitzer had obvi- ously wondered the same thing, but the packers stuck to their story that our "too little" is already "too much" for them and that somehow we should increase hog numbers even with today's prices. A similar line of thinking was expressed by Maple Leaf Foods executive Ray Kingdon at a recent pork conference at Ridgetown. He said, "the hog industry is not growing as fast as we need it to". Their renovated Fear - man's plant has a slaughter capacity of 45,000 hogs per week and the company's goal is to operate it at 97 or 98 per cent capacity. A declining supply of hogs in Ontario is "our single largest problem", he stated. "Franchise farming" is one option the company is looking at to ensure adequate supply and quality of hogs. These joint ventures with producers are just starting to be looked at by the company, and Mr. Kingdon hopes that the Marketing Board accepts the idea or it may be necessary io go to the U.S. "for our supply and co-operative agreements". Threats like this make me wonder whether the packing industry really knows what it costs to produce a pig. In the last issue of "Pork News and Views", the break-even farrow -to - finish price was $131.21 per 100 kilograms with no labour charged. Including the Canadian industrial labour charge of $556.61 per week, the break-even price would be $160.62. Now of course this is based on 100 sows and very likely a potential packer - producer relationship would be based on a larger operation. But more sows do not offer as much economy of scale as one might think. In his column called "Hog Production Costing" in the February issue of Ontario Hog Farmer, Robert Hunsberger shows break-even costs going from 50 sows to 1000 sows. The range was from $141.25 to $130.62 per 100 kg, but the break-even price of $135.65 for 100 sows was less than four per cent higher than for 1000 sows. So much for the notion that "Mega" farms have "Mega" advantages. Carrying this logic further, average 1992 market prices were $127.78 per 100 kg. I cannot imagine a major packing plant becoming very excited about owning and producing hogs at a loss. The price has not always been like this, but it certainly was in 1992. But what about the U.S.? These ar- rangements seem to work there, we arc told. The main reason they work there is because the American producers have consistently received more dollars per hog than Canadians have ever since the countervailing duty came on live hogs. There is more moncy to go around whether it is a farrow -to -finish producer or someone working on a contract for a margin. Even if pseudorabies were not a threat from incoming U.S. hogs not many of them would come anyway because our packing plants could not afford them. Larry Skinner NEWS ITEMS The new 1993 executive for the Perth County Pork Producers Association is as follows: President, John Crowley; First Vice -President, Harry Bardocl; Second Vice -President, John Van Nes; Secretary, Richard Yantzi; Treasurer, Karin Martens. . The Perth County Pork Producers will be having a booth at the Homc and Garden Show held at the Stratford Fairgrounds on April 1, 2, 3 and 4. The Dairy and Pork Festival will be held on Friday, April 23 at the Stratford Fairgrounds Coliseum. The band, "Thc Hornets" will provide entertainment.° Pork Products available from: Wayne Hartung at 291-4038 Alfred Young at 348-9352 Fred DeMartines at 393-6812 Martin VanBakel at 345-2666 Dennis Zehr at 595-4771 APRIL 1993 69