Behind the Lines - April 2009 Sunday, April 5, 2009 Quebec's ASRA (Assurance Stabilisation du Revenu Agricole) has long been the envy of pork producers in Ontario and elsewhere.For various reasons, language being one and the united public front put forward by the Union des Producteurs Agricole another; parts of the program have been a mystery for most Ontario Producers. ASRA is also coming under increasing attack within Quebec because it's long been considered too rich for the government to continue supporting.This past winter The Fraser Institute, a right wing think tank based in British Columbia, reported that Quebec producers were guaranteed $163.77 for a hog that brought less than $120 in the marketplace in 2008, and another program gave $182 million to the piglet-producing industry. Over two years, subsidies were estimated to total more than $1.1 billion.Talking about billions of dollars, however, still doesn't put a face on the pork producing situation in Quebec. That's something our writer Suzanne Deutsch has managed nicely. Her story, beginning on page 6, personalizes the challenges facing Quebec's pork producers, many of who express disillusionment because they are as indebted as any farmers in Canada, in spite of the rich payouts from ASRA. As we were going to press, we learned that Quebec is making some changes that may be unprecedented. Producers there will be partnering with processors to fund development of new pork products. We will have more on that as details become available.Quebec's pork board, La Fédération des producteurs de porcs du Québec says the province has 3,900 producers producing 7.5 million pigs. In contrast, Ontario Pork's website says we have 2,800 producers, producing about 5.3 million hogs. It's been a while since Ontario's industry was larger than Quebec's.It's hard to overlook the irony that Ontario's far older single desk selling capability is being dismantled at the same time as Quebec is proudly celebrating the 20th anniversary of its single desk system. As we went to press, the Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal granted producers Rein Minnema, Fields Farms Ltd., Huron County Pork Producers Association and Ontario Pork Districts 10, 11 and 12 status to appeal the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission ruling last October taking away Ontario Pork's long standing powers as a single desk agency. You can stay up to date on the future of Ontario Pork at www.betterfarming.comOne thing producers in both Quebec and Ontario have in common is a general reliance on corn and soybean based rations. In fact Janice Murphy's column on page 33 in this issue shows just how far we've come with our feeding programs in the past century. Can you believe that a century ago soybeans were used for green manure and were so rare that they weren't included in the 1910 U.S. crop census? ROBERT IRWIN Cover Story: Quebec Pork Producers Seems Temple likes farrowing crates after all
Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration deemed historic event Tuesday, March 18, 2025 A federal program established in the 1930s to support Prairie producers received a national historic event designation from Parks Canada. The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was a branch of the federal ag department created through the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act in... Read this article online
Canada resumes imports from biggest US pork plant Monday, March 17, 2025 Canada has resumed imports from the biggest US pork-processing plant, a Smithfield Foods facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina, after suspending shipments for about a week, Reuters reported, citing the company on Friday. The halt temporarily limited a market for American pork products at a... Read this article online
Canada resumes receiving pork from Smithfield Foods Monday, March 17, 2025 Canada is once again accepting pork shipments from Smithfield Foods’ processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C. Canada suspended imports last week “following an issue with a limited number of certain offal shipments,” Smithfield said in a March 14 statement. “We are grateful to the USDA and the... Read this article online
Iowa State University Examines Truck Washing and Decontamination Monday, March 17, 2025 Research conducted by Iowa State University suggests swine producers and transporters can reduce truck washing and decontamination costs through the strategic scheduling of truck washing. Iowa State University, with funding provided through the Swine Health Information Center Wean-to-Harvest... Read this article online
Weekly Hog Market Update – Week Ending March 14, 2025 Monday, March 17, 2025 Hog prices remained steady with slight fluctuations across major markets. In Ontario, the 100 percent base formula price closed at 233.92 per hundredweight, up from the previous year’s 200.35 per hundredweight. The average dressed weight remained stable at 109 kilograms, while total market hog... Read this article online