The Rural Voice, 1994-04, Page 65PERTH 1P!'
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Harry Bardoel, President
• The Rural Voice is provided to Perth
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA.
OPPMB annual meeting — constant change
Any opinions expressed herein may
not necessarily reflect the views of
the Perth County Pork Producers.
If one's ability to adapt to change
translates into success, the Ontario
Pork Producers Marketing Board
should be around for some time yet.
At the recent Annual Meeting in
Toronto, new ideas such as the
revised grading grid and new
directions as outlined in the Task
Force on Structure seemed to
dominate discussion. There were
also some fine presentations by
speakers such as Lyle Vanclief,
parliamentary secretary to the
Ministry of Agriculture.
A new interim grading grid will
take effect on April 4, 1994.
Producers have been mailed copies
of the interim grid and a follow up
grid to take effect eight weeks later.
The thrust of this change is to get
more pork into the marketing
system. Because the index values
have been increased in both the 85 to
89.9 kg and the 90 to 94.9 kg weight
ranges producers should be able to
ship hogs up to 5 kg heavier without
penalty. Since the packing industry
has been lamenting that they cannot
get enough hogs to keep their plants
running at capacity, this is seen as a
good first step in giving them more
product. They really want more
hogs, as Don Davidson, Manager of
Fearman's Fresh Meats, pointed out.
Current weekly numbers are at
72,000; they want 90,000.
There will be a future review in
the summer of 1994. By then data
from the 1992 national cut-out study
will have been used to negotiate a
new grading table. Many producers
endorse this change because the
extra weight should net them an
extra 3 to 4 dollars per pig. Others,
however, are concerned about
overcrowding barns, slowing
throughout and disrupting their
weekly schedules of moving pigs.
The meeting in Toronto was
highlighted by the presentation of
the final report of The Task Force on
Structure and the following vote by
producers on whether to adopt the
recommendations. Most people
became impatient with the process of
changing the political structure of an
organization and this was no
exception. There had been
consensus on reducing the number of
councillors and directors to reflect
the reduction in the number of
producers in Ontario; but no one
wanted to lose representation in their
area. People wanted to make their
directors more accountable. So the
Task Force recommended that
directors be elected from smaller
geographic areas rather than several
directors from a large zone where
you might be forced to vote for
someone you do not know. The
rebuttal here was that you may not
have the best person in the small
district. So the process went! In the
final vote the report was adopted by
63 per cent of the delegates.
Not all the changes recommended
by the Task Force will become
policy, but the report will form the
basis of the new structure to be
approved by the Farm Products
Marketing Commission.
County resolutions submitted to
the Annual Meeting were also
discussed at length. The issue of
Safety Nets and particularly what
might follow the termination of The
Tripartite Stabilization Program was
of great interest. As an industry and
individuals we have been ravaged by
the depressing effect on prices that
the U.S. countervailing duty has had.
This was recently lowered from 9.3
cents per pound to 1.3 cents but
much damage has been done. Many
people blame our stabilization
program for being the target of the
American duty. At the meeting in a
very close vote it was resolved that
no safety net program be instituted
to take the place of Tripartite.
Another resolution calling for an
independent management review
was passed by the delegate body.
This will hopefully help clear the air
of suspicion that our leaders are not
always acting in our best interests. It
is to be hoped that the parameters of
this review be clearly defined
beforehand, or we will spend a great
deal of money for a consultant to tell
us in a general way what we already
know.
Above are just a few of the
highlights of the annual meeting.
Many more issues were discussed.
In the upcoming year it will be
interesting to see how many
recommended changes come into
being.
UPCOMING EVENTS —
ONTARIO PORK CONGRESS
June 23, 24, 25, 1994 at the Stratford
Fairgrounds.0
Submitted by
Larry Skinner
PORK CONGRESS
1994
June 23, 24, 25
Pork Products
available from:
Fred DeMartines at
393-6812
Martin VanBakel at
345-2666
Dennis Zehr at
595-4771
APRIL 1994 61