The Rural Voice, 1999-10, Page 57PERTH AT-
Courtty Pork Producers NEWSLETTER
Richard Yantzi, President
519-655-2766
• The Rural Voice is provided to Perth
County Pork Producers by the PCPPA.
Any opinions expressed herein may not
necessarily reflect the views of the Perth
County Pork Producers' Association.
Well there was lots to talk about at
our September meeting which lasted over
four hours. In general there was Tots of
concern for the changing structure of our
hog industry.
Ontario Pork representatives met with
Quebec Pork representatives last month
to discuss the possible strike situation
with Oleymel, Quebec's largest
slaughtering plant which currently
slaughters 70,000 hogs/week. If Oleymel
goes on strike and large numbers of hogs
go south of the border then there is a
strong possibility of countervail action
and or anti-dumping laws coming our
way. The two boards decided to put an
action plan in place and they will meet
again this month to discuss expected hog
numbers coming to slaughter this fall and
how to slaughter them all in Canada.
Because our price is based on :he U.S.
National Cost Price we hope that by
slaughtering all the hogs affected by the
strike at Oleymel in Canada that our
price will not be affected as badly as
what happened last year when Quality
Meats was on strike.
There was a great deal of concern
over Maple Leaf's unwillingness to work
with Ontario Pork. Just recently Maple
Leaf backed out of a Platinum Contract
with Ontario Pork that was announced at
the August 19 meeting in Mitchell.
Maple Leaf will run short of hogs on
their kill floor instead of bidding for pool
hogs to top off their weekly kill. In
general Maple Leaf continues to push
towards complete control from feed and
genetics to slaughtering and processing.
We as producers have to be very careful
when signing or renewing direct
producer -packer contracts because the
future of our industry could be at stake. If
the majority of hogs are signed up as
direct producer -packer contract hogs then
what hogs are left for Ontario Pork to
sell? Also what message are we sending
the Farm Products Marketing
Commission? Do we want one or two
packers to control our industry? Maple
Leaf currently runs 100 per cent direct
producer -packer contracted hogs so they
don't have to buy any hogs from Ontario
Pork. If Maple Leaf decided to double
shift their Burlington plant then they
The future is in our hands
would be capable of slaughtering 90,000
hogs/week w.hich most weeks would
cover Ontario's entire hog kill.
In Perth we were so concerned that
we unanimously passed a resolution
asking the board to seriously look at the
possibilities of implementing supply
management (quotas). As one producer
put it, he would rather leave his son with
quotas than leave him to work for
nothing for one large controlling
company.
During the last month I've attended
two meetings from the IOHPA. I can't
say enough about how impressed I am
with this organization's direction. I
always thought IOHPA was mainly
looking at having us producers invest in
smaller packing plants. In the end this is
only one of four areas this organization is
very active in. There were four
committees recently set up and they are
as follows:
• Committee "A" gathers and distributes
information relevant to the independent
pork producers here in Ontario. All the
members who paid their $100 will have
access to all kinds of information on
prices, contracts, and industry related
news, just to name a few. This committee
will publish regular newsletters and is
looking at having information faxed and
possibly e-mailed to members as news
happens. The first newsletter will be sent
out shortly.
• Committee "B" will develop and pass
on to Ontario Pork new marketing
programs to sell pork produced by
independent producers here in Ontario.
One example is that through various
contacts that IOHPA committee
members have, they found a packer in
the U.S. that likes really light hogs. The
committee passes this on to Ontario Pork
so they can look into it. This committee
is monitoring retail, wholesale, and
farmgate prices on a weekly basis. They
hope to come up with a better pricing
mechanism for our hogs.
• Committee "C" is the Investment part
of the IOHPA called the Independent
Hog Producers' Investment Corporation.
They are hoping to have everything in
place for investment by the hog check off
by January 1, 2000.
• Committee "D" is involved in the
lobbying end of our industry. They will
present and advance the interests of
independent pork producers in Ontario in
all forums, government. business and
otherwise. In my opinion this is an area
we as independent pork producers ha%e
been lacking for a long time.
The willingness and dri'e of all the
committee members is what impressed
me the most. Another point that 1 was
glad to see was that the IOHPA wants to
work closely. with Ontario Pork to
develop a profitable hog industry for
independent pork producers. If our
industry is profitable for independents
then producers involved with production
loops will also benefit because there is an
option available to them so loop owners
will always have to pay enough to keep
them.
If anyone is interested in becoming a
member of the IOHPA please contact
Mary -Jo Nelson who is the secretary of
the IOHPA at 519-357-2095 or by fax
519-357-4116.
Thanks for your support
The Perth County Pork Producers
would like to say thanks to all the
industry -related businesses that
sponsored our meetings in Mitchell
during the month of August. Here is a list
of sponsors: Farmix, CFFO, OFA.
Hutton Farm Supplies, BSC. Great Lakes
Nutrition, Shamrock Genetics, Pfizer.
John Moore Insurance, CIBC. M & F
Livestock.
The Perth County Pork Producers
would also like to say thanks to all the
sponsors of our Annual Golf Tournament
which turned out to be a great day.
Thanks to the following sponsors:
Pharmacies — UpJohn. Farm Credit
Corp., Purina, Stratford Farm Equipment.
CIBC Tavistock, Royal Bank Exeter.
Ontario Pork, Ag. Co., Fred Groenstege
Construction, Hutton Farm Supplies, Bio
Agri Mix, Ross Dixon Financial Sen ices,
CIBC, TD Ag Services, Gencor, Mitchell
& District Credit Union, BSC. B & W
Feed and Seed. Great Lakes Nutrition. H.
Van Moorsel Insulation, Brian Van
Moorsel, Farmix, St. Willibrord Credit
Union, Kenpal, Mitchell Veterinary
Services, Dwyer Manufacturing. Shur -
Gain, Luckhardt Transport. New Lite
Mills, Elanco, O'Rourke Transport.
Pfiser, C.I. Hishon Transport. CIBC
Mitchell, Roche. Stratford Fairgrounds.
J.P. Uniac Insurance.0
— Submitted by John H. Nvenhuis
OCTOBER 1999 53