Aug 13, 2009 | 06:21
1
http://www.farms.com/FarmsPages/ENews/NewsDetails/tabid/189/Default.aspx?NewsID=22881
Canada’s government will set off squeals of protests no matter how it decides to handle a plea for aid from its desperate hog farmers.
If Ottawa fails to come through on the $800-million loan request, Canada stands to lose a large chunk of its once-lucrative hog sector to bankruptcy and closures.
But aid for Canadian hogs will read as an attack on farmers in the United States, Canada’s largest market, where producers say they’ll do what they can to stop the proposal.
“Essentially, what this does is it transfers suffering among pork producers from north of the border to south of the border, and we’re not going to stand by and let that happen,” said Nick Giordano, vice-president of the U.S. National Pork Producers Council. “We’re not going to want to wait. We’re going to scream bloody murder. We’re going to go political.”
High feed costs and recession-depressed exports have ruined bottom lines and frayed tempers in the North American hog industry, where farmers have lost money for about two years. Hog prices fell to a six-year low on Thursday.
“It’s never been so bad,” Mr. Giordano said.
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Sounds like aid for hog producers will be announced this weekend - you think this is a lose-lose situation?
Jan 25, 2010 | 21:13
3
It interests me how HiTech and McGrath's Sinnet barns can keep operating in Leroy.
And purchase barns and feed mills to boot in this market. Is it all in the accounting and gov't programs? Not much into eating pork but if I can get my hands on this outside finished pork I do.
Feb 2, 2010 | 14:59
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Our last local producer is shutting down after thirty years of raising what could be described as "free range" hogs. He just can't afford to lose money for four to six months of the year as the market swings forth and back.
Feb 3, 2010 | 17:59
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Lots of producers taking the buyout. No worries, pork eaters. Russia is building sow barn like there's no tomorrow.
In our "globalized" economy, the local producer has no more value than the world's lowest cost producer. And there's always someone willing to do it for less, it seems.
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