Farmscape for June 1, 2012   (Episode 4162)

The Chair of Manitoba Pork Council expects a range of issues to be discussed next week when a delegation representing Manitoba's pork industry travels to Des Moines, Iowa for World Pork Expo 2012.

The 2012 edition of World Pork Expo, which kicks off Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa, will bring together pork industry representatives from around the world to discuss a range of issues and learn about the latest pork industry technologies.

Manitoba Pork Council Chair Karl Kynoch says representatives of Manitoba's pork industry have taken part in the annual event for the past seven years to discuss issues with their U.S. counterparts and promote trade advocacy.

Clip-Karl Kynoch-Manitoba Pork Council:
The general manager out of Pork Council, Andrew Dickson, will be traveling down there and myself.

We have other producers.

We have a Hutterite Brethren representative going with us and our vice-chair will also be down.

Some of the members are down there with their own companies or with other groups as well so we have a very good representation there.

Some of the people that we'll be meeting with, we'll definitely touch base with the National Pork Producers Council as we're moving forward to resolve the Country of Origin Labelling issue and there's also always concern on the different subsidy programs on both sides of the border.

We'll also meet with individuals to talk about PRRS and we'll meet with producers on that subject as well, see how PRRS is coming down there.

One of the big issues that's been hitting us lately in both countries is the stalls.

The sow stalls are a huge issue so we definitely want to see what the producers are doing in the U.S. to look at changing their barns so we'll definitely talk to them.

Then as well, Tyson in the U.S. buys a large number of weanling pigs that originate out of Canada yet so that's very important to our producers so we'll definitely want to touch base with a number of different groups on a lot of issues.

Kynoch says World Pork Expo offers a great opportunity to meet with producers, pork industry representatives and representatives of government and he's looking forward to the opportunity to keep building on the positive relationship that's developed over the past seven years.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council