The Rural Voice, 1983-02, Page 58PERTH COUNTY PORK PRODUCERS' NEWS
PERTH COUNTY AGRICULTURAL WEEK,
STRATFORD COLISEUM FEB. 8-11
Pork Day will be on Thursday. Feb. 10. The Programme will
be as follows:
1:15-1:30 Introductions and Door Prizes
1:30-2:15 Ken Knox, Director Rural Organizations Services,
OMAF: "Planning for Personal Goals".
2:15-2:40 A Representative of McDonald Restaurants will
speak about their organization and the introduc-
tion of pork as a fast food item (McRibs).
2:40-3:00 Questions
3:00 Coffee and "McRibs" for all in attendance. Meet
your fellow producers.
An information booth for pork producers will be in the display
area. OPPMB Promotion Dept. representatives will demons-
trate preparation of pork ribs for snacks and lunches.
The Ontario Pork Producers Marketing Board Annual Meeting
will be held on March 16 & 17, 1983 at the Hilton Harbour
Castle Inn in Toronto. Further information will be given in the
March issue.
BE SURE TO COME TO THE ANNUAL MEETING AT 12 NOON
ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, AT THE STRATFORD COLISEUM.
A new Historial Atlas of the County of Perth was issued in
1982. The Perth County Pork Producers Association, like most
other commodity groups, took out a page to describe and
promote their industry. Printed below is the article outlining
the development of the pork industry which was written for
the atlas by Robert Stephen, 1st Vice -President of the county
association.
PERTH COUNTY PORK
PRODUCERS
ASSOCIATION 1946 - 1982
Picture if you will, an Ontario farmer 1941 driving his
market hogs up a loading ramp onto a truck and watching the
truck disappear down the lane. It's all on faith, for sooner or
later some money for those hogs will come back in a most
unbusiness like manner and in a way over which he has no
control. Four decades later, however, that same farmer or
perhaps his son or daughter now has a totally different feeling
when the truck pulls out onto the road. Where it's going and
how the hogs will be marketed are no longer shrouded in
mystery.
Now a democratically controlled marketing board looks after
all the details, selling the hogs for the highest possible price.
In addition to that, payment will arrive promptly together with
every pertinent detail of the transaction as a matter of record.
After the Ontario Hog Producers' Association was formed in
1941, organization in Perth County did not come for a few
years. Almost all producers were dairy farmers with a hog
side line or beef producers milking a number of cows and
separating the milk and using the skim milk as a source of
hog feed protein. In 1943, a meeting of interested producers
was called by the county Agriculture Department. This group
was then shifted to the Agriculture Committee responsible to
County Council. No action ensued. Seeing the need, the
Federation of Agriculture called a meeting of interested
producers in October, 1945. The ground work was initiated for
organization. The Perth County Hog Producers' Association
came into existence in December 1946.
The Canadian Pork industry has a colourful history of
progressive business endeavour, and a rich heritage of
dynamic service to the consuming public. Most of the
changes have occurred during the last fifty years. Ontario has
taken the lead in the marketing of hogs. and Toronto is the
centre of hog pricing in Canada.
Charles McInnis of Dundas County was the pioneer and
founder of co-operative marketing of hogs in Ontario. McInnis
was the spark that lit the flame of Ontario Pork producers to
organize.
The Co-operative Marketing Agency. in 1955 organized
farmers to form a joint hog assembly system. the assembled
hogs would then be sold by telephone agreement, to the
packers, from the Toronto head office.
— In 1961, a teletype selling system was introduced by the
Ontario Hog Producers' Association. It is the same system as
we use today in 1982. All hogs being offered from head office
through terminals located in each processing plant.
— In 1970 two more changes took place. firstly the
functions of the Association were taken over by the Board and
secondly the word "HOG" in the titles were changes to
"PORK'. Thus the Ontario Pork Producers' Marketing Board
was formed.
Perth County was the last County to vote in favour of
compulsory movement of hogs. In 1955 Truckers saw
"direction" of hogs to the open market as a threat to their
extra income. They began to stir up opposition and
complained about "compulsion". Packers, accustomed to a
system of bonusing truckers to deliver regularly to their
particular plants, were skeptical and fearful of change. This
opposition was increasingly vocal and legal action was
threatened.
In the townships of North and South Easthope and Ellice a
majority of producers being of German and Scottish ancestry,
held an intense love of freedom from legal restraints. Thus,
they became affiliated with an organization known as the
"Free Enterprisers", the official opposition to the Marketing
Board. Their position was that the individual would be much
better off if the marketing fee were not a necessary cost and
that producers should have the individual right to choose
whether they wished to deliver their hogs to a plant rather
than a Board yard. In 1958, the producers association finally
got the government to conduct a plebiscite on Co-operative
Marketing, which turned out 68% in favour of setting up a
marketing assembly system. Theodore Parker from Ellice
township hired a lawyer and fought compulsory marketing,
but when the case went to court it was dismissed.
The Free Enterprisers elected a majority of councilmen, in
1962 formed the executive in Perth for that year, then were
defeated in the following year elections. The Co-operative
Producers voted to elect directors by townships, thus
dispersing the Free Enterprisers base. The years between
1955-1963 were filled with conflict among skeptical hog
producers, vocal truckers and reserve processors, as the
clouds lifted from that stormy era, Perth County Producers
had helped to piece together one of the most enviable
marketing systems in the world.
Since 1963 the Perth County Pork Barbecue has been a
familiar landmark. Starting in Brodhagen on stationary cement
blocks, then becoming portable in 1965 for the purpose of
PG. 58 THE RURAL VOICE, FEBRUARY 1983