The Rural Voice, 2006-03, Page 57PERTH fght
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Russ Danbrook, President
519-356-2385
• The Rural Voice is provided to Perth
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA.
Working together to build our competitiveness
Any opinions expressed herein may not
necessarily reflect the views of the
Perth County Pork Producers'
Association.
February is election month for the
Perth County Pork Producers. We have
a new executive, now headed by
incoming president, Phil Anwender.
Our first vice-president is Rob
Nyenhuis, and the second vice
president is Doug Ahrens. Adrian
VanNynatten was re-elected treasurer,
and Jim Van Herk was re-elected as
secretary.
We are starting what looks like a
trying year — price -wise — and there will
be many other challenges, including
diseases, corn countervail, trade
opportunities, etc...
At the February meeting we also
debated the question "If Ontario Pork
did not exist as a marketing board, and
we were going to form as an
association/board, what would you, as a
producer, want that board to do or be
for you?" The debate quickly identified
a dozen or so bullet points of interest to
us as producers, and we have forwarded
the list to Ontario Pork.
Two points on the list, that are
intertwined, are concerns of
competitive cost disadvantages that we
face in this province, as opposed to our
U.S. counterparts, and the better use of
the collective strength that we have as a
marketing board.
Through a combination of factors
we are becoming much more aware of
the disparity between production cost
differences here and in the U.S.A.
Some areas that seem to show potential
discrepancies are construction costs,
feed costs, government regulation and
drug costs, etc.
In Perth County, for example, we
had already undertaken a drug costing
study looking to see what, if any,
differences existed between our two
countries. What we have found, on a
very preliminary level, is that a
significant difference does exist on the
ten drugs we studied. What we have
not done yet, is to establish why the
differences exist. Is it the
manufacturer, the distribution system,
the regulatory system, the veterinarian,
or is it simply the difference in the
Canada/U.S. dollar? I suppose the last
questions should be "is the difference
significant enough to try to do
something about it, and if so, what?"
This of course plays into our collective
strength as producers through Ontario
Pork.
As an individual producer, asking
these questions, we would be laughed
at, or told where to go. Collectively,
we may have the ability to actually do
something about it. Collectively, we
can have some muscle, and whether it
is drugs, feed or whatever, it is time to
use that muscle to drive unfair costs out
of our production systems. Other
industries do it all the time, as a matter
of course. Can we afford not to? The
reality of our current low prices is
making producers aware of the need to
find ways to improve the "bottom line".
Individual producers need to expect
Ontario Pork to take the lead. We can
start by researching areas of concern to
find out where we are not competitive,
and why. We then need to support
Ontario Pork to take whatever action
we must to achieve results.
Whether it is unfair costs, corn
countervail, production contracts or
lobbying government, we probably
have not, in the past, been as forceful as
we're going to have to be in the future.
The old saying goes, "if you don't
use it, you lose it". I believe we can
have the muscle, now we have to use
it.0
PERTH COUNTY PORK
PRODUCERS'
PORK PRODUCTS
• Smoked Pork Chops • Fresh Pork Chops
• Stuffed Loin Chops • Smoked Sausage
• Smoked Cheddar Sausage
• Bacon Burgers • Teriyaki Pork Steaks
• Vittorio's BBQ Sauce
AVAILABLE FROM:
Steve Hulshof (Kinkora) 348-8167
Walter Bosch (Monkton) 356-9000
Ted Keller (Mitchell) 348-9836
MARCH 2006 53