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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2016-11-02, Page 6Ontario pork industry expected to head for a downturn incoming years Don Crosby For Postmedia The pork Industry in Ontario is in a cyclical downturn. "As farmers we know that it's going to be more chal- lenging for the next six months... there'll be loses for sure and next summer it will get a little bit better," said Amy Cronin, president of Ontario Pork Producers. Cronin was the guest speaker at the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture's annual meeting in Under- wood on Oct. 28, 2016. "It's a volatile tough indus- try to be in sometimes... and approximately every four years we go through a down- turn," she said. "This one comes because there are all kinds of global factors that impact price and right now some of them are quite neg- ative and unfortunately for Ontario that impacts their hog producers." While demand for pork is on the rise there is also more supply worldwide which puts a downward slide on prices. Some U.S. producers are ramping up production as a result of new processing plants south of the border. "That's fantastic except it means there are a lot of hogs out there and the price goes down," said Cronin, who doesn't think Ontario pro- ducers will return to exporting to the U.S. market in a big way. They were shut out by the 2013 American country of origin labelling (COOL) pol- icy that mandated beef and pork cuts be labelled with where the meat was born, raised and slaughtered. The policy gave U.S. pro- ducers preferential treat- ment. It was overturned by the World Trade Organiza- tion ruling in 2015. Cronin said Ontario's 1,500 producers have become quite well estab- lished here in the province in recent year so that there are fewer hogs going into the U.S. market for slaughter. "We're not seeing that many more going south of the border because they are using the markets that they have established here over the last few years," she said. Cronin said supply is also partly being restricted by a lack of processing capacity in Ontario. Hogs are being sent to Quebec for slaughter where there is excess pro- cessing capacity. Kristian Sol is a Bruce County pork producer near Kincardine who predicts that a new code of practice for housing sows are which comes into effect in 2021 will increase producer costs and force some out of business. He said by 2021 gestation stalls for pregnant sows will be phased out and replaced letter to the editor Reader rejects redefinition of parentage terms proposed by province Dear Editor, Our Ontario Liberal gov- ernment is once more trying to push through their agenda with a minimum of notice and public input. This time they are trying to pass Bill 28, which is the Chil- dren's Law Reform Act, the Vital Statistics Act and other acts respecting parentage. In this legislation, they plan to remove the words "mother" and "father" and substitute them with words like "birth parent" or "person." This is supposedly being done to modernize the defi- nition of families and bring equality to everyone. I quote from a letter I wrote to my MPP. "I fully believe that in a free society, we each should respect one another, whether we agree with them or not. In my opinion, this is just one more example of a very vocal minority trying to run rough- shod over the majority who do not share their views. This minority, though it claims to be promoting equality for all, is actually making it very dif- ficult, and even impossible at times, for the majority to express or live out their views" If you want to protect the definition of "mother" and "father'; I urge you to con- tact your MPP and ask he or she to do all in their power to stop the passage of this act. Sheila Dawson Wingham by loose housing, which pro- vides more room for the pigs to freely move around. "It means they can move around in the barn with each other instead of being locked up all day," he said. Sol said the renovations to pig barns will be extensive and costly. "You're going to have to go in and gut it to the studs and completely rebuild your barn, including feed lines and penning and water sys- tems," he said. "There are some barns out there that you might as well shut them down rather than redo them on the inside." Sol predicts that some older producers who are nearing retirement will opt to shut down their opera- tions, rather than make the huge investment needed to meet the new regulations. "Unless they have some family member like a son or daughter who will take over; there will be some who are leaving in the next four to five years," he said Cronin said it's too early to tell what effect the Canadian trade deal - Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agree- ment ( CETA) between Can- ada and the European Union will have on the pork indus- try. It could take up to seven years to implement the agreement and may mean some changes will be needed to meet European standards. Wednesday, November 2, 2016 • Lucknow Sentinel 5 Don Crosby photo Amy Cronin, president of the Ontario Pork Producers, was guest speaker at the Bruce County Federation of Agriculture's annual meeting on Oct. 28, 2016. "I would like to think that there will be an opportunity for our industry, I know it won't be immediate and it may mean we do things in a different way to cater a new and different market," she said. Elections for the Bruce County Federation of Agricul- ture's executive resulted in Les Nichols becoming president for another year. Ken Bridge is first vice president and John Rodgers is second vice presi- dent, and office administrator Jackie Pennings is the secre- tary treasurer. Lancers comeback falls short against Shallow Lake Dickie Dunn Contributor After a big win against defending champs Clinton, Lucknow looked to build off it against the Crushers. An early goal for the Lancers showed the Lanc- ers picked up right where they left off. However three unanswered goals by Shallow Lake was a huge gut check for our Boys in Red. The Lancers were able to get three of their own in the second period, but not before the Crushers were able to put two more behind goaltender Tyler Kuehl. After a Shallow Lake goal early in the third, the Lancers again pulled to within one. A barrage of shots towards the Shallow Lake net in the dying moments were to no avail as Lucknow was handed its second loss of the season, the final score 6-5. "This is a game that proves that you can't take a game off against anyone in this league," Head Coach Steve Simpson following the game. "We battled back just like we had almost every game this year, but we have to stop putting ourselves in that situation." The Lancers are on the road next Saturday, as they head into Brussels to take on the Huron East Centenaires. SUDOKU THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE SPONSORED BY Mitchell Twolan, Broker of Record Lake Range Realty Ltd. 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