The Rural Voice, 1987-08, Page 62PERTH COUNTY Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Hans Feldmann, R. R. 3, Listowel
THE PORK CONGRESS; NEW AND UPDATED PROGRAMS
The Ontario Pork Congress in Strat-
ford June 23 to 25 brought the usual
good crowds, good weather, an interest-
ing and informative educational pro-
gram, and an ever-increasing number of
exhibitors. Congratulations to the com-
mittees and the many volunteers for put-
ting on another great event.
The Perth County Pork Producers
again had a booth, giving producers an
opportunity to meet their executive and
their directors with questions and com-
ments.
The Minister of Agriculture, the
Honourable Jack Riddell, outlined the
programs his ministry has initiated and
brought his staff to explain details and
answer questions. Regardless of one's
political stripes, Mr. Riddell deserves
credit for his enthusiasm and his posi-
tive outlook in what sometimes appears
to be an atmosphere of pessimism with-
in the agricultural community.
The highlights of Mr. Riddell's
speech are as follows.
The pork industry is one of the cor-
nerstones of agriculture in Ontario and
exports of breeding stock, live hogs, and
processed pork are an important factor
in the economy of the province. The
imposition of a countervailing duty has
shown the vulnerability of export mar-
kets and the need for diversification and
the development of new markets. Mr.
Riddell reiterated his commitment to a
strong and competitive agriculture and
backed up his commitment with in-
creased funding for various programs,
as follows:
The Ontario Family Farm Interest
Rate Reduction Program (OFFIRR)
will be continued at 100 per cent for
1987.
Changes in the Farm Tax Rebate
Program will give farmers an additional
$18 million.
A farm management, safety, and
repair program will provide $50 million.
The details were announced at a later
date. It will pay individual farmers up to
$2,500 for improvements in safety, farm
machinery repairs, and farm storage and
farm management analysis. The pro -
60 THE RURAL VOICE
gram is retroactive to June 1, 1987, and
is available to producers with a gross
annual production of $12,000. The
program consists of four parts.
1. A $300 grant for participation in
the ministry's farm management analy-
sis project.
2. A grant of 80 per cent on specific
on-farm safety projects.
3. A grant of 50 per cent of the cost
of replacement parts for field machinery
or for farm shop equipment.
4. A grant of 40 per cent of the cost
of on-farm feed and storage facilities.
Farmers will be able to get their $2,500
on any combination of projects that suits
their specific farm operation.
Another highlight is that $40 million
will be spent on a program to restore soil
productivity and to reduce environmen-
tal damage.
The budget has set aside money for
a new five-year program to help young
farmers start up in business.
The Ontario Pork Industry Improve-
ment Program (OPIIP) will be enhanced
effective April 1, 1986 to make the fol-
lowing grants to help improve herd
health: $100 each to a maximum of
$10,000 for boars, gilts, or sows pur-
chased from a closed herd that was clas-
sified Excellent under the Ontario
Swine Herd Health Policy; $50 to a
maximum of $5,000 for breeding stock
bought from a herd classified Good;
$500 per sow to a maximum of $10,000
for each Caesarian section on a sow or
each donor sow used for an embryo
transplant.
A second program will help to build
up to six Caesarian section and embryo
transfer facilities to help complement an
increase in high -health status swine
herds. People establishing commercial
Caesarian section and embryo transfer
facilities will be eligible for a grant
covering two-thirds of the cost of mater-
ials to a maximum of $20,000. These
grants are designed to help producers to
establish closed herds and to maintain
that status by introducing new genetic
material by surgical procedures or Al.
In addition to these funds, OPIIP has
committed $3.1 million to research
projects, including the effect of pre -
slaughter management on the incidence
of PSE, the development of methods of
rapid disease diagnosis, better tests for
mycotoxins, and improved storage and
handling of frozen boar semen.
A Marketing Assistance Program
(MAP) worth $10 million is designed to
provide processing companies with
grants to help adopt new technology and
to provide research studies and export
initiative.
The minister challenges producers
and processors to make use of these pro-
grams to give the industry a new start.
In a speech made to the Stratford
Chamber of Commerce, the minister
stressed the importance of agriculture to
the economy of the province. He said
that, after the auto industry, agriculture
is the biggest industry in Ontario, and
that the government, recognizing the
importance of farming to the economic
health of the province, tries to take every
opportunity to impress this fact on urban
audiences. Mr. Riddell warned the
audience that the issue of free trade has
to be approached carefully and all the
facts must be known before one should
be willing to accept any agreement. He
told producers that the present health
restrictions, which impose a quarantine
on live hogs coming in from the U.S., are
a major irritant to agricultural trade
negotiators south of the border. Canada
is now free of hog cholera and pseudo
rabies and if farmers wish to maintain
this health status they are well advised to
press negotiators not to trade away these
restrictions.
All in all, with the government rec-
ognizing the importance of the industry
and opening its purse strings to assist
with the development of improved man-
agement systems, with this summer's
upswing in prices and the prospect of
good corn and grain crops, producers
can face the future with some degree of
optimism.0
Hans Feldmann
R. R. 3, Listowel