COURTENAY, B.C. – Allen McWilliam sounds almost incredulous as he describes the success of the hog operation that is the mainstay of his farm, tucked into the forest on the east coast of Vancouver Island.
“It’s become reasonably profitable and it doesn’t really make sense that we can raise pigs on Vancouver Island,” said the one-time city boy turned farmer and accountant.
It makes even less sense in the past year since the federal government eliminated the feed freight assistance subsidy program that paid $23 per tonne toward the cost of moving feed onto the island from the mainland.
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Heather keeps the books for the family farm and runs most of the hog operation. “The only thing I won’t do is castration,” she said.
The end of the federal subsidy added more than $5,500 to the cost of running the farm each year, she said.
There will be federal money to compensate in the transition period, but the added costs are forever.
Skyrocketing costs
Add to that soaring grain prices of the past year and it brings the cost of feed to $340 per tonne, a full $100 higher than a year ago on the McWilliam farm. They import 240 tonnes per year for their 40-sow operation.
“Those are very high costs for a pig operation compared to a farm, say on the Prairies,” said Allen.
Still, they make money selling 800 hogs a year to a nearby packing plant that sells it locally as fresh pork. He figures Vancouver Island farmers have advantages in the weather and the local market for fresh produce.
Prices have strengthened this year, from $1.60 per kilogram in January to $2.10 in June.
“Prices are good and we like the business,” he said.
So much so, in fact, that the McWilliams have all but decided to double their sow herd. It would take an investment of up to $100,000 to expand barn space and to buy the stock.
“I think we’ve pretty well decided to expand,” said Allen. “The only real cloud is the feed issue. In a way, we feel we are living in a false economy with these high prices but maybe not.”
They also have a small herd of Angus cattle, which Heather sells directly to customers in halves and quarters.
“We make twice as much doing it that way as selling them through an auction,” she said. “Still, it is more work.”
The cattle operation is the smallest revenue source on their 105-acre farm. The hog operation is the bread-and-butter.
But Allen’s work as an accountant in Courtenay is the family’s financial mainstay.
“We probably could make a living off the farm if we expand the hog operation,” he said. “Not now.”
But an expanded farm would also push him closer to being forced to make a decision about whether he is an accountant or a farmer.
Right now he is both, carrying a cell phone at the office in case he is needed on the farm and carrying the same phone on the farm in case an accounting client calls.
“I don’t know which I will choose if I someday have to make a decision,” he said. “I like them both.”
In some ways, Heather and Allen seem to have created the best of both worlds for themselves since they decided 22 years ago to move out of Victoria to the country.
At the time, she was a 27-year-old teacher and he was a 26-year-old accountant in the city.
They bought a house and 15 acres three hours drive north of the city, she got a teaching job and he looked for work, eventually helping create an accounting firm in Courtenay. In the late 1970s, they began to build a farm, starting with a purchase of 60 acres nearby and some pigs.
Over the years, Allen has been able to do both jobs that he loves.
“I like accounting for the people contact,” he said. “I love farming because you have to be a jack of all trades. There is some self-sufficiency.”
Heather gave up classroom teaching in 1978 and has been the main farm operator since, but she also has found several outlets for her teaching skills.
She is the treasurer and Vancouver Island director for the B.C. Farm Women’s Network.
She is also involved in an agriculture education committee that has prepared resource materials for classrooms, provides people to visit schools and organizes farm tours to try to educate local politicians.
“You would be surprised,” she said. “Even though they are living in a rural area, we find the kids here have little knowledge about where food comes from.”
Often, that seems true of the politicians, policy makers and members of the general public as well. They either take farmers for granted or look down on them.
“I think the farm community is increasingly isolated here in B.C.,” she said. “We have to keep educating people, making the point that we are here and we are important to the economy and the community.”
