This Little Piggy Didn't Go to Market

By Les Kletke
Thursday, April 17, 2008 12:27 PM CDT

Les Kletke

What happened? That is what Manitoba's hog producers want to know.

Murphy's Law says that if something can go wrong it will, Manitoba hog producers were aware of Murphy but they didn't know that the whole Murphy family would come to live in our province and take over. It seems that Murphy - or is it Murphys - are everywhere and everything has gone wrong.

Individuals who did a lot of things right are facing impossible times. The people who diversified into the livestock industry and added value to their product by further processing are now faced with record high grain prices, which means their inputs are priced beyond belief.

I don't think General Motors could face a tripling in the cost of steel and still make cars we could afford, yet hog producers are facing a situation worse than that. Barley and corn prices have tripled and feed is a much bigger part of a finished hog then steel is a car today. Feed is the major component in hogs leaving the farm even when you pay hired labor.

So the fellows who build barns to turn cheap barley into a valued product are facing tough times because of increased inputs, then the Canadian dollar increases in value by 25 percent in one year. This in a country that has to export 80 percent of its agriculture products, pig included. So the budgets that worked on prices that used a low Canadian dollar feel the effect of Mr. Murphy and his law.

As if things weren't bad enough, their biggest customer enacts some new labeling legislation that will require packers to establish a separate line for a pig that has been to another country. Pigs are not tourists by nature but a lot of little pigs begin life in Manitoba and are sold to customers south of an arbitary line called the U.S.-Canadian border. Pigs or people do not change when they cross that line, trust me I have done it several times. So now little pigs are no longer wanted by the American producers who had contracts to buy them.

I cannot fault American farmers for their decision to no longer take little Canadian pigs, one has to be concerned about oneself. It is just another one of those things that get blamed on Mr. Murphy. It could go wrong and it did - now there are thousands of little pigs with no market to go to.

The Federal government has come up with an assistance plan to help producers get rid of some old sows by providing a payment for them. That will take the oldest, least productive animals from the herd. Those of you that remember PIC and putting land aside know that it did nothing to reduce production of American crops, it just meant the bad land was in set aside and the good land got more fertilizer and better management. Taking old sows out of the herd is a lot like that.

The media has picked up on the story and how hog producers are faced with the possibility of killing little pigs. Once you have put the bun in the oven, the little pigs are coming and there is no way around that so producers have to deal with unwanted piglets. The general media turns that into a story that some how sounds like cruelty to animals, headlines scream “Cruelty to Pigs”, but show no compassion for the farmers involved. Is that you Mr. Murphy?

Time and space does not permit me to go through the process of explaining that most of these producers built barns that took advantage of the economies of scale and required employees so that there would be a day off from the farm. They also used the most up-to-date genetics that provide the best pork possible and as close to the perfect pork chop for today's consumer. They did everything right, and moved in the direction the government of the day recommended, okay that was their one mistake but that does not justify the situation they face.

Most of agriculture is buoyed by the current commodity prices, and things look good heading into spring seeding but there is a sector that is suffering and while the numbers may be small in terms of the producers that are hit, they are individuals that are facing some difficult circumstances.

I have been called callous at times, and I do acknowledge I have little sympathy for people that do stupid things. I did not believe that the government needs to bail out farmers who bought too much in the ‘70s and then faced high interest rates in the ‘80s and blamed the banks for loaning them the money. I believe that you have to take responsibility for your actions. I bought that high-priced land and got squeezed by the interest rates. I bought a lunchkit and went to work off the farm - that is a fact of life.

This one is not only affecting people who made wrong decisions, everything turned against these guys and I think we need to do something about it. It might be a selfish motive on my part but we have to save the hog industry, I like pork chops and ribs way too much to let these guys go down the tank. We are heading into barbecue season and we are facing a death knell in the hog industry, this is the time to save the industry.

The Murphy family may live here now, but it is time to help those around us, and now those are the pig farmers. I know they need help, I don't know how to do it but I am going to eat as much of their product as I can to help with the demand.

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