SUSSEX, N.B. – Paul Moffett knows the pitfalls of the Canadian hog industry.His father, Stephen, is chair of the Canadian Pork Council safety nets committee, has invested $10 million over the past eight years in their New Brunswick operation and sells pigs at less than it costs to produce them.“The future of livestock in the Maritimes is dark,” Paul said as members of the House of Commons agriculture committee visited his farm May 11.“I doubt that the four-year cycle that has existed still exists.”For the moment, he is involved in the family business and sees a future.But it is a bit bleak.“I really see more contract farming and fewer family farms in the business.”The Moffetts run a unique hog operation in the province.With 5,000 sows, they market 100,000 hogs per year. The sow and weanling operations are divided into three sites in the Sussex area for disease control reasons.The farm, created in 1974, feeds byproducts such as whey from dairies and byproducts from local breweries.Now, a major ingredient in hog rations is bread purchased from local plants and turned into a soupy mixture for feed.The Moffett farm also sends half its hogs to Indiana for finishing, where they have access to cheaper subsidized American corn as feed.They retain ownership of the hogs being finished there.Stephen told MPs that when he started the operation in 1974, Farm Credit Canada financed 90 percent of startup costs.He said FCC is now more cautious with its financing.“I think these days, it operates much more like a bank.”He said governments could help young farmers like Paul with more support and better terms for the millions of dollars in financing young farmers need. And he said the traditional four-year hog cycle of high prices followed by a trough likely is over.Several generations of farm programs have required some profitable years in the recent past to qualify for payments from programs such as AgriStability.“Really, the cycle hasn’t been in evidence lately and the markets have been much more volatile,” he told MPs.
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