Pork industry running a fever, veterinarian tells television

Sunday, July 19, 2009

by KATE PROCTER

“You can make a difference” is the message that veterinary swine practitioner Dr. Martin Misener is trying to send to the Canadian public. Misener recently spent $15,000 of his own money to make and run an advertisement on television stations to raise awareness of the serious situation faced by pork producers across the country.

Dr. Misener, a managing partner in the Linwood Veterinary practice, treats herds totalling about 75,000 sows. As he has watched his clients suffer through a third year of losses and heard nothing but a deafening silence, he finally decided he needed to do something to help.

“The point of the commercial is to appeal to families to help one another. I believe that the Canadian pork industry family can reach out to the Canadian consumer family. Each segment of our industry can join in the campaign.  Donations to food banks, sponsorship of soup kitchens, aggressive retail sales campaigns as well as accelerated advertising will provide a positive message and provide businesses with opportunities,” says Misener.

Misener is hoping this commercial will be a jumping off point for the pork industry and that affected businesses, including processors, feed and input suppliers and retailers, will get involved with initiatives of their own. “It is limited only by the imagination. No one has answers to the macroeconomic issues that are affecting the industry, but that does not justify doing nothing,” he says.

The commercial includes a pig, Misener and three farm families – Roger and Barbara Richmond, Plattsville, Mike and Amy Cronin, Bluevale and Mike and Andrea Degroot, Sebringville. It finishes with a family picnic in Misener’s mother’s back yard where the Misener family is enjoying a meal of smoked pork chops and encouraging people to “put pork on your fork.”

As producers become aware of the initiative, Misener reports only positive feedback. ‘Good for you – it is high time somebody did this,’ is the main message he has been getting so far.

Misener wonders how some of his clients are managing to hold on and he expects to see a sharp increase in the number of farm bankruptcies if the situation does not improve quickly.  He has seen a difference in the last three weeks. “It is like the pork industry hit a wall and the wheels fell off,” he says.

He says buy-sell arrangements are breaking down as producers try to spread their risk. In Western Canada, farmers have chosen to give away weaner pigs rather than face more serious losses.

Producers here have changed their management practices and reduced their sow numbers.

Misener thinks that there are more people poised to take advantage of another cull sow program if the chance arises.

The commercial will be run from July 22nd to August 18th on CBC stations CBLT in Toronto, CBLN in London and CBET in Windsor. BF