The Rural Voice, 1983-07, Page 41ONE MAN'S OPINION
Adjust shipping
in short weeks
by Adrian Vos
It is always a source, both of dismay
and wonder, when I watch the number
of hogs shipped after a long weekend. It
appears that the pork producers of the
province expect the marketing board to
do all the thinking for them.
A long weekend means, of course, that
all packing plants are closed for at least a
day. One day out of five normal working
days means that they will buy twenty per
cent less hogs in that week.
Nevertheless, while on a normal Mon-
day producers ship some 22,000 hogs, on
the Tuesday after a holiday weekend the
number is invariably over 30,000. What
do the producers expect from the
packers? Do hey believe they will bid
high anyway, just to please them?
The marketing board tries to salvage
whatever is possible, by refusing to sell
below a certain level. This means holding
hogs overnight at assembly yards and
trying to sell them the next day at a better
price. But that next day pork producers
again flood the market as if there wasn't a
short workweek in the city.
Not that they are not warned. Weeks
before a long weekend the pork board
sends out notices with the cheques,
asking producers to ship some extra
hogs the week before the holiday and the
week after. In the short week the volume
should be cut back as close to twenty per
cent as possible. But it doesn't change.
Every holiday weekend is the same.
The problem with giving information in
written form is that so many people
confess not to read. A notice is just
casually thrown out.
Another problem is that with a properly
functioning marketing board farmers
seem to have forgotten how to market
their product. When they have wheat
ready for sale, all they have to do is bring
it to the nearest receiver; the wheat board
will do the rest. Eggs will be picked up at
the farm gat ; the_.,e,gg board will look
after them from there on. When broilers
chickens or turkeys are the right weight,
call, and the marketing board will take it
from there.
But as can be seen from the beginning
of this column, the pork board cannot do
everything. If a pork producer wants top
money for his product, he will have to
begin thinking a bit. What is better, to
ship a number of light hogs the week
before a holiday, and a number of heavy
hogs afterwards, or to ship stubbornly
the same number, regardless of hog
killing capacity?
There are some indications that hog
numbers are increasing and this could
well mean the prosperous time for pork
producers is coming to an end. This
means they will have to pay special
attention to barn productivity.
This will be especially difficult for
those producers, as mentioned above,
who don't take the time to read. If one
doesn't keep up with new developments,
efficiency falls by the wayside. In the last
year -and -a -half even poor managers
could make a profit from pork produc-
tion. But even today that is not always
true anymore.
For those pork producers who do read
this prose. please, do yourself a favour
and adjust your shipping in short
working weeks. L.
Adrian Vos, a regular columnist with
The Rural Voice is a freelance writer
from Huron county.
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THE RURAL VOICE, JULY 1983 PG. 39