Farmscape News

Farm to Farm Swine Movement Tracking Trials Set for this Summer

Jeff Clark - Canadian Pork Council — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for February 9, 2010 (Episode 3360)

The Canadian Pork Council expects to begin testing a new system for tracking farm to farm movements of swine this coming summer.

The Canadian Pork Council is overseeing the development of the swine component of a national multi-species traceability system.

Pig Trace includes premise identification, market tattoos and tracking of slaughter movement, ear tag identification of breeding stock and movement reporting.

CPC manager of national traceability Jeff Clark says early adoption trials for movement reporting are set for this coming summer.

Clip-Jeff Clark-Canadian Pork Council:
The movement reporting we've always felt could be the most complicated part of it, not so much because it is complicated itself but just because it really involves the entire industry.

So very basic data fields, that would be the date and time of movement, where you're located so you report your premise ID or your farm name, where you're sending them to, the number of animals on the load and the license plate of the load.

Those are the core data fields but the complications come in, how do we get that information into the system, how do we make it cost effective and how do we make it practical.

Some of our solutions so far are working with the software companies who do production management software already for many of our producers.

The software companies are interested in modifying their products for us so they can submit traceability information on behalf of the producers.

We're also looking at working with the transport companies who already collect information themselves.

Could they pass on traceability information for the producer.

We're looking at a whole variety of options for getting information into the system.

We really don't want to have to rely on phone calls or faxes or things of that nature.

We want to make it automated, we want to make it easy for the producer so we're hoping to do some early trials in the summer of 2010 with some early adopting producers to try out some of these ideas.

Clark says traceability is primarily about crisis management related to foreign animal disease and food safety but the system is also expected to provide a market access advantage.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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

High Health Remains Canadian Pork Industry's Main Advantage

Ted Bilyea - Independent Consultant — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for February 8, 2010 (Episode 3359)

An independent swine industry consultant suggests the high health of Canada's swine herd remains one of its pork industry's biggest advantages when it comes to world trade.

With continuing declines in domestic pork consumption, expansion of the Canadian pork industry over the past 20 years has been in support of export growth.

Ted Bilyea, with Ted Bilyea and Associates, told those on hand last week for the 2010 Manitoba Swine Seminar in Winnipeg Canada has historically done well as a result of disease issues.

Clip-Ted Bilyea-Ted Bilyea and Associates:
Other countries where they have stressed the production much greater because their densities are much higher, they've had many more problems with disease.

Canada has an enviable reputation of having one of the healthiest herds in the world.

That is well known, that's one of the reasons why our breeding stock is preferred in many parts of the world.

We have had, up until this H1N1 problem, we have largely benefited by these disease issues starting way back with foot and mouth in Taiwan which really triggered that growth spurt.

That's when we had to replace the production of Taiwan which was the largest exporter to Japan.

Canada stepped in early into that and it was able to build significant exports to replace that and we went on from there with many other diseases in Europe etcetera.

It's not all bad news it's just that we need to focus now more and more on surveillance and making sure that we've got very good biosecurity, essentially we firewall the hogs.

It's not so much that hogs are the issue for us with disease as it is that people tend to bring disease to hogs.

That's the real issue and that's the one the public is beginning to understand I believe.

Bilyea notes, while domestic consumption has been declining, the export market has stood up rather well and even this year, our most current year, we've had robust sales.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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

Pork Producers Forced to Cut Production Costs to Survive

Karl Kynoch - Manitoba Pork Council — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for February 5, 2010 (Episode 3358)

The Chair of Manitoba Pork Council says tightening margins over the past 25 years have forced pork producers to cut production costs in every way they can.

"Pig industry challenges over the past 25 years" was among the topics discussed during the 2010 Manitoba Swine Seminar which wrapped up yesterday in Winnipeg.

Manitoba Pork Council Chair Karl Kynoch notes a range of challenges have resulted in a drop in the number of hog producers in Manitoba from about 35 hundred to fewer than 800.

Clip-Karl Kynoch-Manitoba Pork Council:
If you take a look at the meat price in the store, back about 25 years ago pork chops were 2.90 a pound and today if you look at that same good quality chop it's up around five dollars a pound.

But at the same time what the producer is receiving for a hog is reduced.

If we go back 25 years ago the producer got 160 dollars per pig and today they're only getting about 125 dollars per pig.

At the same time the meat product has went up in the store, what the producer receives has went down so we haven't kept up with that money coming back to the producers.

At the same time the input costs have went up dramatically also with the cost of feed and fuel, hydro, all that types of things have went up so the producer has really had to do a lot of adjusting to be able to survive.

A lot of producers are just going to have to look at absolutely reducing the cost as low as they can on feed inputs, freight, fuel, all these things here.

We start looking now for pennies per pig to just reduce that cost.

You're going to have to make sure your performance is as high as you can and you're really going to have to watch your commodity prices, when you buy your grain, when you sell your pigs and all of that.

This industry has really changed and you really have to understand the complete system of buying and selling to be able to survive.

Kynoch says producers used to make 20 dollars per pig but they now have to survive on two dollars per pig so it takes more of them.

He is confident there will be pork production in Manitoba in 25 years but he concedes there will be more restructuring and the industry will look a lot different.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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

CPC Disappointed in Effectiveness of Hog Industry Loan Loss Reserve Program

Jurgen Preugschas - Canadian Pork Council — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for February 4, 2010 (Episode 3357)

The president of the Canadian Pork Council is expressing disappointment with the effectiveness of a federal program designed to allow pork producers to restructure existing debt and extend payments over longer terms.

The Canadian Hog Industry Loan Loss Reserve Program, being offered through Canada's chartered banks and credit unions, is part of a federal pork industry restructuring plan.

The Canadian Pork Council has been tracking the effectiveness of the program.

CPC president Jurgen Preugschas told those on hand yesterday in Winnipeg for the 2010 Manitoba Swine Seminar the financial institutions appear to be using criteria that makes it too difficult for producers to access funds.

Clip-Jurgen Preugschas-Canadian Pork Council:
It's been good for those who have been able to access it and it's close to 300 million dollars now that has been approved under that program and it's only 113 producers.

It's a very small percentage of producers have been able to access it.

We expected a much higher uptake and I think there's a combination of reasons for that and that's the part that we're disappointed in.

We feel that maybe the financial institutions need to put a higher value on the government guaranteed portion of the loan.

What we are hearing is that they're still lending with very similar criteria even without the government guaranteed portion so that would be the main thing.

Preugschas adds producers across Canada are indicating the linkage between the emergency Advance Payments Program and this program s causing some difficulties.

He says you're taking a loan that is 100 percent guaranteed by government and replacing it with a loan that puts some of the risk with the financial institution and that in itself creates some issues.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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

Research Demonstrates Value of Advertising and Promotion to Market Pork

Dr. Ellen Goddard - University of Alberta — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for February 3, 2010 (Episode 3356)

Research being conducted by the University of Alberta suggests the value of advertising and promotion within the pork industry can't be underestimated.

Researchers with the University of Alberta have tracked aggregate pork consumption and individual household purchases of pork and held focus groups in an effort to assess the influence of advertising and promotion on pork purchases.

Dr. Ellen Goddard, the cooperative chair of agricultural marketing and business, observes while the pork industry tends to spend more on promotion than the beef industry, advertising tends to be inconsistent.

Clip-Dr. Ellen Goddard-University of Alberta:
We see a lot of advertising for generic pork.

Because I live in Alberta I notice that Alberta Pork does some pretty successful generic advertising of pork particularly in the summer when they want people to feature pork on their barbecue that sort of thing.

But we also have a lot branded pork advertising and you could think about even branded fresh pork advertising.

We look at semi-processed products.

We also see that there's a lot of spending on fully processed products like ham and that would all be spent by processing companies rather than the farmer groups.

From a little bit of experimental work I'm doing I have found out that people are very interested in finding out more about the production of the products they're buying.

Everybody would know that people are interested in buying local, they're also interested Country of Origin, they're also interested in production standards and they have some concerns about aspects of livestock production they've heard perhaps in the media, perhaps from their friends and neighbors that they don't well understand so we can't underestimate the importance of communicating the kind of standards that we have in Canada even if it's just that it's a Canadian product.

Dr. Goddard says all of the studies show advertising and promotion is still an effective form of communicating with the consumer.

She says we have high quality standards in the Canadian pork industry and we need to make sure people are aware of the quality of the pork we're producing in this country.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

-Dr. Goddard addressed the 2010 Banff Pork Seminar last month.

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

MLMMI Calls for Research Proposals Related to Phosphorus

Brandy Street - Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for February 2, 2010 (Episode 3355)

The Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative has issued a request for proposals for literature reviews in areas related to the use of livestock manure as a fertilizer source and to the techniques and technologies to achieve manure phosphorus balance.

The Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative is inviting individuals, partnerships, companies and research organizations to submit applications to conduct one of two literature reviews related to the use of livestock manure fertilizer and the manure phosphorus balance.

MLMMI executive director Brandy Street says the goal is to gather information that will help farmers meet current and future phosphorus management regulations in an affordable way.

Clip-Brandy Street-Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative:
The call for proposals is looking to gather information on the state of the industry in regard to what type of crop and land management practices are currently in place to manage phosphorus balance after manure application and what practices could be added for future phosphorus management.

Secondly we're looking at what types of manure processing technologies are out there to deal with manure phosphorus balance and then what types of success and failures are involved, what is the overall value of the technologies being assessed and where do we go from here.

The literature reviews will provide valuable information to research institutions such as the university as well as technology companies in regard to what management practices and technologies are best suited to meeting the phosphorus regulations.

And they'll let the producers know what practices and technologies are currently available, how they work, how efficient they are and what their overall value is.

Street says from there it will be possible to determine where the next phase of research and development should lead.

The deadline for submitting applications is February 24th and the literature reviews will need to be completed by mid-June.

Additional information can be accessed at the initiative's web site at manure.mb.ca.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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

U.S. COOL Discussed During Trade Advocacy Meetings in Des Moines

Karl Kynoch - Manitoba Pork Council — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for February 1, 2010 (Episode 3354)

The chair of Manitoba Pork Council says Country of Origin Labelling was the main topic discussed last week when representatives of the organization traveled to Des Moines to meet with their American counterparts and various representatives of government.

Last week a delegation representing Manitoba Pork Council traveled to Des Moines to take part in the 2010 Iowa Pork Congress and to promote improved trade relations between the Canadian and U.S. industries.

Topics discussed included the state of the North American pork industry Country of Origin labeling and animal welfare.

Pork Council chair Karl Kynoch says, because of the refusal of U.S. packing plants to accept Canadian origin pigs due to Mandatory COOL, many U.S. producers that had been buying baby pigs from Canada are now sitting with empty barns.

Clip-Karl Kynoch-Manitoba Pork Council:
The concerns related to COOL is just the fact that there's producers on both sides of the border that are sitting with some empty barns and basically have no way to operate these barns because if you're going to open them up you need somebody that's going to buy that end product.

Due to the fact that a lot of the packers in the U.S. have actually cut off buying any hogs that originated as baby pigs out of Manitoba has really put restrictions on the access to that.

We've lost a large percentage of that market so there's a lot of concern with producers on both sides of the border.

Now we're seeing some of the spin-off effects such as that Sioux City packing plant closing down there in Iowa.

If we look back at the BSE situation, the same thing happened there.

When they restricted trade across the border some packing plants closed and never did reopen and we're starting to see some of the same spin-off effects on the hog side so there's a lot of concern there from U.S. producers and from Canadian producers.

Kynoch notes these trade advocacy missions have been going on for the past five years and relations among producers on the two sides of the border remain strong.

He says there is a recognition that Canadian and U.S. producers need to be working together to compete on the world market.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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

Water and Feed Availability Expected to Determine Canada's Role in Pork Production

Ted Bilyea - Independent Consultant — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for January 29, 2010 (Episode 3353)

A Toronto based agri-food consultant suggests the availability of land and water will be among the key factors that will determine Canada's future role in the global pork industry.

"Pig Industry Challenges for the Next 25 Years" will be among the topics discussed next week as part of the 2010 Manitoba Swine Seminar in Winnipeg.

With the exception of China the global pork industry has been shrinking lately as the result of losses fueled primarily by escalating feed costs.

Ted Bilyea, with Ted Bilyea and Associates, suggests the availability of water and arable land to produce crops will be among the key factors that will determine Canada's future role in global pork production.

Clip-Ted Bilyea-Ted Bilyea and Associates:
Western Canada is in a position where it has a hog industry that is essentially using the grain that is down graded by mother nature every year that can't sold easily into human consumption then the hog is doing its thing it was put on this earth to do which is to recycle and play that role.

If indeed we are having to import corn or other feed grains to raise hogs and then expect to sell the meat on an export basis we're kidding ourselves because that mathematics will never work.

If you look at the world there are many places that it doesn't make complete sense to be raising animals that consume grain because that grain has to be imported and that is a very costly procedure and less than sustainable.

The second one is water and, as you know, animals in the end consume a lot of water through the grain they eat and just raising them.

Bilyea says, although the Canadian pork industry has had a difficult time recently, it has two key structural advantages, water and land, and several smaller ones but those advantages have been overwhelmed lately by the other short term issues.

However he's confident those issues eventually being over come.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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

Livestock Health Surveillance Key to Maintaining Market Access

Dr. John Berezowski - Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for January 28, 2010 (Episode 3352)

Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development says early detection of infectious disease is critical to maintaining a nation's ability to access to international markets for live animals and meat.

Livestock Health Surveillance was discussed last week during the Banff Pork Seminar.

Dr. John Berezowski, a veterinary epidemiologist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, says management of animal health risk and the impact of disease on market access have heightened interest in livestock health surveillance.

Clip-Dr. John Berezowski-Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development:
We've seen a rapid increase in the number of new pathogens and the number of new diseases that infected both people and animals over the last 30 to 40 years.

We've got new diseases emerging and we tie that to these really well developed livestock and meat distribution systems so at any one time there's upwards of 40 thousand ships with animals and animal products on the oceans of the world at any one time.

We also move over a billion people across international borders every year.

Even within a small province like Alberta the number of animal movements that occur within this province to support our livestock production systems is huge so we need to be watching for changes in existing disease that might suggest that an existing disease is changing in its pathogenicity or its ability to infect livestock or people.

We also need to be looking for new never been seen before diseases and we want to detect them when they're first unknown, when they're just an increased morbidity or increased number of sick animals, increased number of dead animals and they often will first appear as an unknown disease.

That's the point where we need to have well funded investigation systems so that we can collect animal samples and try to find the cause of the disease as early as possible.

Dr. Berezowski says a few days delay in detecting a new disease can mean the difference between an outbreak that costs the industry thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars and an outbreak that costs millions or even billions of dollars.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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

25 Million Awarded to 145 Producers Under Hog Farm Transition Program

Gary Stordy - Canadian Pork Council — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for January 27, 2010 (Episode 3351)

The Canadian Pork Council has allocated just over 25 million dollars to 145 successful bidders in the third tender under the Canadian Hog Farm Transition Program.

The 75 million dollar Canadian Hog Farm Transition Program is part of a comprehensive federal hog industry restructuring plan which, based on a tendering process, compensates producers who agree to exit the industry for a minimum of three years.

Canadian Pork Council executive director Gary Stordy says out of 403 bids submitted 145 bids were accepted before the 25 million dollars allocated for the third round were exhausted.

Clip-Gary Stordy-Canadian Pork Council:
The weighted average out of the 145 successful bids was approximately 925 dollars and 42 cents per AUE (animal unit equivalent) and the AUEs are what we essentially evaluate all the bids that come in so that they're comparable across production types.

The low bid that came in was approximately 584 dollars and the high bid was 999 dollars and 86 cents.

The types of operations varied from across Canada but, at the end of the day, this tender will be removing approximately 38 thousand sows, 76 thousand weaners to 30 kilogram animals and approximately 150 thousand finishing animals for the next three years.

The fourth and potentially final tender is slated for March 10th and will be allocate a total of 14 million dollars.

Stordy says there is still expected to be considerable interest in the final tender.

He says producers who have already registered and have not had a bid accepted will receive tender forms in the mail and he encourages those producers interested in the program who have not yet registered to do so by February 17th.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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

Canadian Pork Producers Call for Equivalent Food Labelling Rules

Karl Kynoch - Manitoba Pork Council — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Farmscape for January 26, 2010 (Episode 3350)

The chair of Manitoba Pork Council reports a growing number of Canadian pork producers believe Ottawa needs to impose the same labelling rules on U.S. pork entering Canada as is required for Canadian product entering the U.S.

A delegation representing Manitoba Pork Council visited Minneapolis last week and is in Des Moines this week for a series of trade advocacy meetings and to discuss issues of common concern with their U.S. counterparts.

Pork Council chair Karl Kynoch says Canadian pork producers are increasingly concerned with the fact that, while U.S. Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling has made it more difficult to move Canadian product into the U.S., American product continues to flow freely into Canada.

Clip-Karl Kynoch-Manitoba Pork Council:
Right now we're going through the World Trade Organization to try to resolve the dispute of COOL and the impact that it's had.

If we were to lose this case and those labelling restrictions stay in place some of our producers are starting to push for equivalency in labelling laws coming into Canada.

25 percent of the product that goes across the shelves in Canada comes out of the U.S.

They've managed to continually increase the imports of product into Canada.

Our producers are probably getting fairly concerned with that for when you spend a lot of money trying to promote your product you sometimes feel you're just promoting it for the other guy.

But, if we ship product into the U.S. it's got to meet all these Country of Origin Labelling laws yet product can come into Canada here with very little restrictions.

In fact it doesn't even have to have the label on saying what country it came from when stores re-label it.

So that's again a concern as the playing field gets a lot tougher for the Canadians shipping out than it does for product coming in.

Kynoch notes Canadian and U.S. producers have worked together to achieve equivalency on food safety and animal welfare laws but, when we see stricter labeling laws on one side of the border, it disrupts that equivalency.

He suggests the two industries need to be working together to compete on a world market.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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