Producers hammered by falling prices, rising costs, swine flu fears

TORONTO — The Canadian Press Last updated on Monday, Jul. 06, 2009 03:49AM EDT

Hog farmers say they are losing thousands of dollars and considering euthanizing healthy pigs because they are battling bankruptcy without government aid.

Dozens of farmers - with 50 pigs - gathered at the provincial legislature Friday to protest against what they call government inaction in the face of a crisis that has been growing for years and worsened by fears around swine flu.

"We're just digging the hole deeper," said John Gough, who has a 300-sow operation in Mount Brydges, Ont.

"Country logic would say if you get in a hole, quit digging. Well, we can't quit digging. Are we going to let them starve?"

Mr. Gough said farmers are losing about $50 a pig as they try to feed and raise hogs for slaughter, and new farmers are in the most dire straits because they don't qualify for government aid available to experienced ones.

Protesters said farmers who have started since 2005 were left out of the $150-million package, in favour of established and retired pork producers.

"Those people who are the future of our industry, not just for pork but for all of agriculture, can't keep doing it," Mr. Gough said.

Eric Reymer, 35, of Woodham, Ont., got into the business five years ago. He said he's never received government aid and is running out of money fast.

Mr. Reymer fears he will be forced to euthanize 2,000 20-day-old weaner pigs by Monday if he can't find a buyer for the animals because he can't afford to keep them - a move that would cost him roughly $70,000.

"I've been contacting people across Quebec, four different broker agencies," he said. "Amongst my own people I've been trying contacts, and nothing.

"Nobody wants pigs. All the barns are full, and the price - you won't even give them away right now. I'm backing up like a sewage system, and I have to do the right thing and I'll probably have to gas them."

Like other protesters, Mr. Reymer said high feed costs, safety concerns after the H1N1 virus was dubbed the "swine flu," and U.S. legislation making it impossible to send pork there for processing are making it impossible to turn a profit.

Pigs are selling for about $5 to $7, when the cost of production is $34 to $36, he said.

"I'd like to pass my farm to my kids," Mr. Reymer said. "I ain't going to have nothing to pass through because we'll be looking for a place to live in another five months."

Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky said yesterday the payments young farmers are requesting were part of a one-time aid package to help struggling producers recover from past losses, not a program that was meant to continue.

There are cost-sharing programs that work in partnership with the federal government to help producers, she added, noting they don't address issues stemming from the H1N1 virus, which will be discussed in an upcoming meeting of agriculture ministers.

"What I'm looking for from the hog industry is some ideas of how we can assist them in the short term and the long term," she said.

"We want to sit down and think about this very carefully and very thoughtfully, and you really do need to ask yourself, if the federal government is paying pork producers in Ontario not to have hogs in their barn, does it make a lot of good sense right now to provide dollars to new, expanding farmers?"

Mr. Gough said the current programs don't help because they pay farmers on the average of what they made for the past five years.

"We haven't made any money for five years, so there's no average to work with," he said.