The Rural Voice, 1998-03, Page 471
New co-op proposed
for Ontario hog sales
Ontario Pork should give up its
monopoly on marketing hogs and
concentrate on industry -wide issues
while a new co-operative is set up to
sell hogs for Ontario producers who
want to join.
Those major recommendations
proposed by the Ontario Pork
Industry Marketing Task Force were
unveiled to Huron County Producers
at their annual meeting in Varna,
January 22 and to the Perth County
Pork Producers on January 29.
Clare Schlegel of Perth County and
Jody Durand of Zurich, two of the
members of the task force, presented
the proposals at the Huron meeting,
advising producers to discuss them at
their county meetings so the matter
can be voted on at Ontario Pork's
annual meeting in March. The task
force was set up after pressure from
many producers to end Ontario
Pork's sales monopoly and make it
compete to sell hogs with other
agencies, while taking the cost of
marketing hogs off the shoulders of
those producers who deal directly
with packers.
Various members of the nine -
person task force visited Denmark,
western Canada, and the mid -western
U.S. to study marketing methods; a
survey was conducted of 1200
producers; and regional meetings
were held with producers, before the
recommendations were formulated.
The recommendations are based on
the reality that Ontario produces
more pork than it consumes. Because
the U.S. and possibily other
provinces will continue to be
important markets, the task force
rejected the possibility of going to a
closed system like the one used in
Denmark.
The objective of the task force was
to build on the foundation of 50 years
of co-operative marketing while
allowing individual producers to
continue to explore new systems of
production and marketing.
On that basis it was proposed that
Ontario Pork create a separate sales
co-operative for those producers
News
willing to participate. "It is necessary
to have the sales co-operative (or co-
operatives) operate separately from
Ontario Pork to avoid any impression
that universal service fees are
supporting or subsidizing sales
services in which all producers do
not participate," said Schlegel in a
presentation prepared by the task
force for presentation to producers
meetings across the province.
"Producers who do not use the
sales services of the producers sales
co-operative should not have reason
to believe that they are subsidizing
the services they are not using.
"This should also allow the sales
co-operative to be more focussed
upon offering the best sales service,
without 'political' interference."
Schlegel also suggested the sales
co-operative would have a freer hand
to enforce quality standards since it
would not be supported by universal
fees. Speaking earlier in his report as
Zone A director to Ontario Pork,
Schlegel said such a co-op could be
the largest seller of pork in North
America.
Ontario Pork would no longer be
directly involved in direct sales
services but would instead
concentrate on universal services for
all producers. A transitional period of
one year would be necessary to allow
other agencies, both private and the
co-operative, to be set up to market
hogs. In that time producers would
be allowed to market directly but
Ontario Pork would also market on a
fee-for-service basis. Ontario Pork
would no longer be responsible for
scheduling of hog delivery to
packing plants.
Ontario Pork would, however,
maintain the authority to collect sales
related information. "Information is
seen by most producers as the most
important tool to allow independent
Ontario farm operators to compete
with the large U.S. integrators,"
Schlegel said.
While Ontario Pork might not need
information on all sales it would be
essential to have a statistically
significant sample on an ongoing
basis, he said. The task force found
that Manitoba and Alberta, in moving
to an open marketing system, were
unable to maintain reliable and
accurate price reporting of their hogs.
"Price reporting takes on added
importance in an open sales system,
because producers will wish to
compare the performance that they
are getting from their sales system or
agent, to that of the provincial
average."
Ontario Pork should also ensure
that carcass -related information on
yield, grade, quality and demerits is
available for all producers and that
industry averages arc available for
comparisons.
Ontario Pork would then
concentrate on such universal
services as research support,
international trade development,
lobbying on behalf of producers,
consumer marketing, speaking for
producers on issues such as animal
welfare and environmental
management, and developing and
enforcing standards of production,
transportation and welfare.
Ontario Pork, once it is removed
from the adversarial position of
trying to bargain with packers for the
best price, could then work more
closely with all segments of the
industry, the task force said.°
Zoning bylaws not as
restrictive as many
think, study shows
The location of your neighbour's
house may be the most critical factor
in limiting location of a new hog
operation in southwestern Ontario,
according to a study by Ken McEwen
and Luanne Marchand of Ridgetown
College.
Speaking to the annual meeting of
Huron County Pork Producers in
Varna on January 22, McEwen said
the study included zoning bylaws
from 177 townships from Windsor to
Barrie, looking at restrictions on
three types of barns: a 1,000 -head
feeder barn, a 100 -head farrow -to -
finish operation and a 600 -sow
farrow -to -wean barn.
The study found there was little
difference in the restrictiveness
between the three types of barns.
There were differences according to
MARCH 1998 43