LETHBRIDGE – With the exception of the hog sector, the agriculture industry is doing well this year, says the head of western operations for Farm Credit Canada.
“The hog industry is in turmoil right across Canada,” Clem Samson said during an FCC meeting in Lethbridge Aug. 26.
The crown corporation has become a partner in the government-private sector program announced this month to support the industry.
He said the FCC will provide bridge funding for hog producers who feel they can survive the economic crisis until the next upturn cycle.
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Samson said the other sectors are in good shape, partly because they are in the right part of the production-marketing cycle.
The crops sector, the biggest part of FCC’s portfolio, is riding the crest of high prices in the past two years.
However, he acknowledged that when grain prices are high, the livestock sector “takes it on the chin.”
That is one of the pitfalls of the hog industry, and why the cattle sector is also struggling.
The beef industry is facing turmoil, Samson said, but the light at the end of the tunnel is brightening.
Beef cattle inventory numbers in Canada are shrinking and the U.S. cattle population is dropping even faster. The supply-demand ratio is moving back to a more normal position, he said, and with it should come economic recovery.
The supply management sector “is doing extremely well, of course.”
