Manitoba Hog Farmers
Making Some Money but Get Rid of Building Moratorium says Kynoch.
Karl Kynoch chair of the Manitoba Pork Council says the enthusiasm and attitude of hog producers at the recent annual fall pork producer meetings is the best he's seen in four years.
The MPC held these meetings in November in Niverville and Portage la Prairie, MB with good attendance by producers and industry partners.
Kynoch says while producers are more optimistic than last year, there is continuing concern regarding the Government of Manitoba hog barn ban. There is a need to expand existing capacity so that packers can ensure an adequate supply of hogs and remain competitive with U.S. plants.
"If we back up a few years, so much doom and gloom and farmers lost so much money, he said. "At our fall meetings, there was a much more positive atmosphere than I've ever seen in the last four years."
When producers start to make some money as in the past, it makes things much more positive. While the enthusiasm overall is higher, the deep financial black holes many producers dug themselves into, are still there and put a real damper on things moving forward.
"What I'm noticing is the big mix of producers. It really depends a little bit on how tired he is, others looking to exit at a better time, maybe with a little profit after all the red ink," he says. "What really surprised me in talking to several producers at Portage la Prairie is they're excited and ready to move forward - excited and pumped about the industry."
The one producer has bought a barn and looks to fill it up and move forward. Some are looking to pay off some debt in the next two years and move on.
"Others want to build and move on but there is a downside to that," Kynoch says. "The industry and government has not sorted out the regulations and moratorium on building new barns in Manitoba."
The MPC chair says industry and government continue to work on making some progress and thinks they will get some resolve on it this winter because the Manitoba NDP government has pushed the industry too far.
"We've talked to government for quite some time now on the issues of building restrictions and what it's not only doing to the industry, but to the packers, and the people in this province," Kynoch says. "In the last three or four years, the industry has built only four barns and on old permits. I think government is realizing they've pushed the industry too far. Manitoba is starting to lose jobs and losing dollars for the gross domestic product."
The hog numbers keep dropping, the processing plants are short of pigs, and the whole industry in the last two or three years has lost 1000 jobs. The government seems to be realizing too, the hog industry isn't solely responsible for polluting Lake Winnipeg and anaerobic digesters don't work in Manitoba.
"It has taken us a long time to convince these people they don't work nor does mechanical separation, it is simply too costly," Kynoch says. But I think the Manitoba NDP government is changing a little on this so we can get some of those barn numbers back a little bit."
In some instances where people bought shut-down barns and thought they were getting them for pennies on a dollar, are realizing fixing them is more than costly. When they started to repair, it became apparent building new might be better in most cases and leaving the old ones. Some of these barns that closed down for four years are a huge mess, look terrible and cost big dollars to restore.
It is one thing to build new, restore the old, but he sees the bigger challenge as to where will the new Pig Code and animal welfare people come out and where will it leave the producer and the industry when they do finally get a chance to build new, or remodel the old.
"We're hoping going forward the new Pig Code will grandfather all existing barns," says Kynoch. "Those are things we have to watch for because it is not in writing yet."
The MPC chair says these animal rights people have no interest in raising animals. They do not understand animal agriculture and yet are trying to influence these decisions. Their goal is for no one to eat meat. Then the kneejerk reactions start to happen. Then the Wal-marts and McDonald's and others through these knee jerk reactions capitulate and scare others into making bad decisions.
When we talk to those people to try to undo this, they have no clue why producers used sow stalls in the first place.
"These knee-jerk reactions, not based on science or an understanding of the hog industry create huge challenges for us," says Kynoch. "Not only do those animal welfare people and consequent knee jerk reactions change some minds in the industry, it scares the producers into making similar knee-jerk decisions."
It is ironic, he says, while they push for the industry to get rid of those stalls, without any real concern or knowledge, they inadvertently push animal welfare for these pigs backwards.
Reflecting on this past year, he says its much more enjoyable being the chair of MPC when producers make some money.
Elections of MPC district advisors for a two-year term took place at the fall pork producer meetings recently. District advisors play a key role in Manitoba Pork Council by actively representing local producers' interests, meeting as a group at least twice a year for day-long meetings, participating in the annual general meeting, and the fall producer meetings.
From the West District (producers west of the Red River), Calvin Penner (Argyle), Stan Dueck (Arborg), and Jeroen Van Boekel (Stephenfield) were re-elected. From the East District (producers east of the Red River), Marg Rempel (Ste. Anne), Lorne Voth (Steinbach), and Lyle Peters (Randolph) were re-elected. Edward Stahl from Grass River Colony was re-elected from the North Star Producers District, and Leonard Waldner is the new district advisor representing the Hutter Schwein District. •
— By Harry Siemens