The Rural Voice, 2006-04, Page 654
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PERTH 11T
County Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Russ Danbrook, Presider
519-356-238
• The Rural Voice is provided to Penh
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA
News from the Ontario Pork annual meeting
Any opinions expressed herein may ,
not necessarily reflect the views of
the Perth County Pork Producers'
Association.
All the notes have been taken,
votes cast and evaluation forms filled
in and another Annual General
Meeting of Ontario Pork has drawn to
a close. We are left to think of what
was accomplished through the two
days in London.
From this producer's standpoint it
was great to be in London and the
facilities were excellent too. The first
day's Industry Forum was
outstanding (thank you, thesaurus fpr
an alternative to excellent) with many
varied presentations.
I went to the Market Outlook first
and heard from an American analyst
that ethanol production is going to
have a huge, huge, huge effect on
agriculture. (His words, not mine, he
didn't use his thesaurus.) He showed
us a map with a presently working
ethanol plants and then added all the
plants that will definitely be built or
are already under construction. The
expanded capacity was about four to
five times what was presently in
operation and was going to use all the
corn from the area. There will be
dried digestible gluten which will be
a big bonus to the beef industry for
feed and he figured it would be a
negative for chicken and hogs
because of the increased cost of corn.
(Did I mention he said this was
huge?)
Associated with this session was
Ken McEwan's analysis of the
markets and the number of hogs in
Ontario compared to previous years
and compared to the States.
The next session I attended was
the disease challenges session. PRRS
and Circovirus were the centre of
attention and the presenters did an
admirable job of keeping the talk
informative and interesting. We all
are aware of the terrible losses we
have been battered with by these
diseases. There are projects
underway, and some high quality
people are working very hard, to give
us some tools to control and
eventually eliminate these bugs. As a
producer who has seen some
challenges in the barn, this presenta-
tion gave me something in
short supply in the barn these days:
hope!
Creating Market Opportunities
was a session that got my mind
racing with the possibilities for my
own farm and thinking outside the
box. Surely there's more to life than
being a price taker! Our presenters
covered the theory and the practical
in how to move into innovative niche
markets.
— Day I Submitted by Ron Van Bakel
After a great breakfast, day two
started with Curtiss Littlejohn calling
the meeting to order and introducing
Ontario Pork Chair Larry Skinner.
At the start of his talk he made a
statement that I had heard at the Perth
County Annual meeting: there is a lot
of pessimism in our industry. Even
though our own industry is struggling
with low commodity prices it is not
something specific to ours alone —
other commodities are feeling the
struggles as well.
Larry pointed to specifies such as
the quick rise of the Canadian dollar
vs. our major trading partners, USA
and Mexico, as well as our heavy
reliance on exporting our product.
Even with the turmoil of events that
happened, times of success came too,
with the U.S International Trade
Commission ruling in Canada's fay.o.
allowing for the return of dumpin,
duty deposits.
This talk on the trade action led
later in the day to a quick round table
discussion on how we should proceed
with marketing live hogs to thy.
States. Should we pull hack. pursue
more marketing sales or keep thing
as they are? This is only a small piece
of discussion topics simply because
so much information is presented tha
it is hard to remember it all.
Two other points of interest v.er
the update on the issues of the core
countervail as well as traceability .tn
Premise identification. The corn
countervail was a sensitive suhlec,
with views being expressed both to
and against due to the impact othe
agricultural commodities could feel
based on the results.
Traceability speaks for itself. The
system must meet international rules
so that other countries accept our
process and allow unaffected sectors
to continue shipping to these markets
This is just a small piece of the
events that occurred at the Annua;
General Meeting. There is no vA av 1
could present all that occurred in the
allotted space given for this article
Nevertheless it was an excellent day
well worth spending a sunny day
inside.0
— Day 2 Submitted h,
Bert J. Vorstenbos,
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)
Walter Bosch (Monkton)
Ted Keller (Mitchell)
348-8167
356-9000
348-9836
APRIL 2006 61