This month’s cover story is based on research conducted by University of Guelph Ridgetown campus economists Randy Duffy and Ken
McEwan. Their study, financed by the Agricultural Management Institute and Ontario Pork, compares the financial fitness of Ontario’s swine industry to its counterparts in other jurisdictions.
After the ongoing and continuous production and financial crises of the last few years, one might bill this as the industry’s financial stock-taking. Some might consider it navel-gazing.
The economists conclude that, while pig farms generally are carrying more debt than before the crises starting in 2006, their debts have been offset to some degree at least by increases in farmland equity.