It took a former cattle producer to question why there wasn’t a feeder association for pigs.
Grant Mann, head of the Peace Country Pork Management Group, said the idea of creating a feeder association for pigs came out of the frustration of trying to raise money to build hog barns and buy the hogs to fill them.
It was during that discussion that Chris Rochon, a member of the pork management group and a former cattle producer, asked why producers could not buy the animals through a feeder association.
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For 66 years, cattle producers have been able to use one of 61 feeder associations in Alberta to buy cattle with only a five percent down payment.
When the pork group took a closer look at the Feeder Association Guarantee Act, it found the definition of livestock is limited to cattle and sheep, not hogs.
Last November the group began lobbying government to change the act written in 1938. On April 1, the provincial government introduced amendments to include feeder hogs in the act.
Hector Goudreau, MLA for Dunvegan, who introduced the act, said the changes to include hog producers have the support of all parts of the provincial government. It still has to go through second and third reading and committee stage, but Goudreau expects clear sailing through to royal assent this spring.
“I don’t anticipate having any difficulty bringing it through,” said Goudreau.
Once the amendments are made, it will take a few months to set out the rules and regulations, but hog producers could be buying feeder pigs through feeder associations as early as the summer.
Under the act, the provincial government has $55 million allotted to the feeder associations as government guarantees for feeder loans. Cattle producers are using about $52 million of that to buy cattle. Hog producers will be able to access the other $3 million immediately.
The changes to the hog industry will be huge, said Mann. Now, if a producer wanted to stock a 2,000-head finishing barn with pigs at $60 a head, he must come up with at least a 25 percent down payment, or about $30,000. Under the act he would only need a five percent down payment, or about $6,000 to stock his barn.
“I now have $24,000 that doesn’t have to come out of my pocket or out of my operation. For a 2,000-head finishing operation, that’s a lot of money,” he said.
“It reduces the operating costs for the industry to finish pigs in Alberta and provides a much needed cash injection into the industry,” said Mann, whose group, based in Fairview, Alta., helps farmers who want to integrate hog finishing barns in their operation.
In an Alberta Pork survey, about 55 producers representing about 20 percent of the pigs produced in the province said they liked the idea of a feeder association for hogs.
Ed Schultz said the changes offer hog producers the same benefits as cattle producers.
“This is seen as very significant and worthy of pursuit,” said Schultz.
Until 20 or 30 years ago most hogs in the province were produced in a farrow-to-finish operation without changing hands. Now, the hogs may change hands two or three times and be raised in two or three separate barns before they are sent to market.
Schultz said it’s unlikely that it will mean more hogs fed in the province, but the changes may mean some of the 112,000 feeders going into the United States to be finished may instead be finished in Canada.
“If it lowers the costs, maybe some of them will stay here,” he said.
