Sask. offers help to hog sector

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Published: October 10, 2002

The Saskatchewan government will soon roll out an assistance package

for hog producers, says agriculture minister Clay Serby.

It will likely be modelled after the short-term hog loan program

announced in December 1998, which followed a price crash that fall.

“The industry is of the view that this is an effective program,” Serby

said in an interview Oct. 7.

Hog producers have been asking the government to reintroduce the

program since prices again took a tumble in August, he said.

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Producers are struggling with increasing costs of production due to

rising feed prices after this year’s drought.

Serby said government and department officials have been working on a

package for about a month. He said an announcement would be made

“fairly quickly.”

The 1998 program offered loans, through financial institutions, of up

to $40 per market hog and $10 per weanling. It distributed $11.4

million to 221 producers, based on 417,000 hogs and 36,000 weanlings.

It included all hog farmers.

The National Farmers Union last week sent a letter to Serby, saying

that aid to large corporate hog barns could come from another source.

“For Big Sky and similar mega-barn producers, we suggest that you

encourage them to approach their packer-partners and ask those

corporations to provide assistance from the increased profits that

packers can expect to earn,” the letter said.

The NFU said falling prices don’t affect the vertically integrated

corporate producer as much as they affect family farms, because price

decreases are offset by increases in packing plant margins.

The letter cited NFU research that showed packers had record profits

during the 1998 downturn.

The organization also wants Serby to reinstate single desk selling for

hogs to help stabilize the sector. The system was abolished in April

1998.

Meanwhile, the loans offered in the 1998-99 program are due March 31,

2003. As of March 31, 2002, there were 122 outstanding accounts worth

$1.4 million.

About the author

Karen Briere

Karen Briere

Karen Briere grew up in Canora, Sask. where her family had a grain and cattle operation. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Regina and has spent more than 30 years covering agriculture from the Western Producer’s Regina bureau.

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