Manitoba livestock producers are giving a cautious thumbs up to the provincial government’s drive to establish a network of ethanol plants.
But cattle and hog producers say if it isn’t done right, their industries will suffer.
“We don’t believe that ethanol plants should be subsidized in a way that will put cattle producers at a disadvantage by raising feed grain prices and impacting on the natural balance that businesses and industries try to achieve,” said Betty Green, president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers Association.
Marcel Hacault, chair of the Manitoba Pork Council, agreed.
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“Anything that would raise the price of feed grains to feed users like hog producers wouldn’t make us happy, and I think there are real questions about whether there would be enough feed grains available for everyone,” said Hacault.
Some agricultural economists have warned that creating a prairie ethanol industry could cause losses in the livestock sector.
The Manitoba government has embraced a non-government panel report that recommended the province encourage the development of a network of small ethanol plants, which would produce ethanol and provide a high protein livestock feed from the processed grain.
But University of Manitoba agricultural economist Daryl Kraft said that in many years the province does not produce enough feed grain to supply the existing livestock industry, let alone an expanded one or a new ethanol industry.
Corn is now imported by many southeastern Manitoba hog farmers because they can’t get fusarium-free barley in their area.
Hacault said ethanol production won’t necessarily raise feed grain prices or take feed away from livestock producers.
“It has to be done as one package. There has to be a livestock component connected to each ethanol plant,” said Hacault.
With feedlots or hog barns close to a plant, and using the mash left over by ethanol production, ethanol and livestock production could be complementary, Hacault said.
But he fears the Manitoba government will push development toward areas that don’t have much livestock production now, and those areas won’t be able to get livestock operations approved. Stand-alone ethanol plants will create grain competition for hog and cattle producers and should be resisted.
Green said ethanol plants that directly supply distiller’s grain to feedlots could be a good thing for the cattle industry. But she agreed with Hacault about stand-alone plants.
