The Saskatchewan government will extend the repayment terms for hog producers who used a loan program to help get through the last price downturn.
Payments were to start right away for those who received loans between Sept. 8, 2002, and April 30, 2003, and were to end April 30, 2007.
Producers will now have the option of paying off their loans by 2008. They will still be required to make their interest payments.
“This will help them with their cash flow,” said provincial agriculture minister Mark Wartman. “We will contact each of the loan holders currently in the program to let them know what we’re doing.”
Read Also
European wheat production makes big recovery
EU crop prospects are vastly improved, which could mean fewer canola and durum imports from Canada.
About 100 producers are involved in the program. Under its terms and conditions, producers are supposed to begin payments when market prices rise above $150 per hundred kilograms.
Producers could borrow the difference between $145 per ckg and the average market price of a 108 index hog, to a maximum of $50 per hog.
Weanling loans worth $10 per animal were also available when prices fell below $145 per ckg.
Payment required
Even with the extension, producers are required to pay one-third of the difference between $150 and the market price.
The government last week also announced extensions to the due date of cattle feeder loans and the period for sale of heifers and steers.
“Under normal market conditions, the feeder loans are repaid when feeders are sold or when heifers are transferred to a long-term cow loan,” Wartman said in a News release
news.
“But, declining market returns have caused producers to hold onto the feeder heifers and steers that they would normally sell.”
