ACME, Alta. – Fearing their colleagues will be bankrupt next year, some Alberta pork producers want the provincial government to retool its farm disaster program.
Special loans and provincial aid from the Farm Income Disaster Program are not enough to bail people out of the one of the worst price declines in history.
Two consecutive years of losses bring averages down, so they want a longer averaging period when calculating low margins, said Greg Meek of Acme, during a producer meeting. Five years would be more acceptable to farmers, he said.
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Those attending the Acme meeting said they also want the province’s pork board and the Canadian Pork Council to petition the government for changes to the federal income disaster program to include negative margins when calculating the need for help.
However, one pork board delegate said the government won’t consider negative margins because it can’t afford to make massive payouts to sectors like hogs and feedlots where there have been such steep losses last year.
Under the federal program, Alberta’s share is about $60 million.
However, the Alberta government said producers have already been paid, so this money is going into a special account to benefit agriculture in areas like research and development.
Producers at Acme disagreed.
“That money is for us. We’re still not out of the woods yet,” said producer Roland Ziegler.
Pork prices are still below break even and producers worry these could slide downward still.
