EDITORIAL
There goes the neighbourhood
Property tax reform is sweeping rural Ontario once again. For Ontario pork producers, it's ominous news - three recent successful assessment appeals granting tax rollbacks due to proximity to a pork operation.Late last month, Howard township lawyer Douglas Desmond, who has been embroiled in the ongoing Great Lakes Pig Ltd. dispute on the Lake Erie shoreline in Chatham-Kent, won a tax break for his own property, and that of two neighbours.
Setting what Desmond believes is "a provincial and national precedent," the Assessment Review Board ordered rollbacks of 10 to 15 per cent in the assessed value of the three properties on the basis of the nuisance produced by the odour and pollution from a nearby hog farm. Desmond's victory is symbolic. The reduction will only amount to $300 at most, but the precedent is a wakeup call for pork producers looking for a future in the business in Ontario.
There have been similar cases in the U.S. Midwest as well. Last spring in DeWitt county, Illinois, for instance, 20 citizens complaining about a 7,400-sow farm had their property values pared 30 per cent.
According to the University of Guelph's Gordon Surgeoner, 40,000 people a year move into rural Ontario, where the farm population now accounts for only 17 per cent. The Desmond file should be moved to the top of the agenda, not only for the pork industry, but the corn, soybean, agribusiness and other industries that depend on it.
More on boars"Boosting Boar Shelf Life" (Farm & Country PORK, June 15) contains incorrect impressions and data.
Contrary to your article, very few producers purchase the individual components of BTS and weigh each to produce the extender. It's not cost-effective for most users and would not provide the manufacturing quality control of commercial product.
Your article cites some concern over risks of "transferring material between species." No such "transfer" has ever been documented using Androhep or other extenders containing BSA (bovine serum albumin), which is isolated and purified from the blood of cattle. The Androhep distributed in North America by Minitube International in Wisconsin contains BSA that has additionally been gamma irradiated (sterilized).
Your blanket statement that "storage conditions vary for different extenders" is not totally correct. Extenders for liquid boar semen, including Androhep and BTS, have been designed for optimum storage at 16-18C degrees.
Nor am I aware of scientific data providing evidence that ultraviolet light from typical fluorescent lights of "semen labs" damages the DNA of sperm, as your article suggests.
There's no scientific data to support statements attributed to Dr. Mary Buhr that semen lasts longer when sperm are exposed to the extender; or that tubes and bottles stood on end may cause sperm to concentrate at the bottom, and don't provide the same exposure to the extender as flat bags. Furthermore, a July 1998 publication by Simmet, Rath and Lorton provides evidence that sedimentation does not influence semen quality as demonstrated by laboratory assays.
Rather than package type, poor technique during semen processing, storage and artificial insemination greatly influence semen quality and fertility. Flat bags stacked at or near the centre of a heap are not all maintained under the same temperature as stacked tubes or bottles, which allow air movement.
Another article - "Boar Buyer Beware," page 21 - suggests that producers "don't need the expensive laboratory-style microscopes with a warming stage to check the quality of semen they buy. An inexpensive child's science microscope will do." This is not the case. Sperm motility, as a measure of sperm quality, is very much influenced by temperature. While farmers needn't have the most expensive microscope, a toy will only result in inaccuracies.
Steven P. Lorton, PhD,
Minitube International,
Wisconsin
backBy ROBERT IRWIN
Maple Leaf's announcement of its fourth carcass weight increase in as many years won't be its last. Pork chops are going to keep getting bigger, it seems. The company's new Signature Pork 2000 program specifies an increase of 2.5 kg from its earlier standard, for a new live weight of 112.5 kg, or a carcass of 90 kg."Would we end up moving it heavier yet? The answer is, quite possibly," says Don Davidson, senior vice-president and general manager Maple Leaf Pork in Burlington.
"We were running around 83 kg three or four years ago and then we came out with our requirement at 87.5," he recalls. But he cautions further increases will depend on pig performance, carcass quality and customer acceptance. "Our domestic accounts in Canada haven't been exposed to the real heavy pork cuts that would come from some of the plants in the U.S."
In a press release the company says producers who follow company guidelines will produce the heavier carcass in 150 days. It will have a minimum lean yield of 60 per cent, loin weight of 8.1 kg, and an average ham weight of 10.5 kg.
Ontario Pork chairman Will Nap speculates that herds with top genetics will probably remain efficient at weights up to a maximum live weight of 260 pounds, while others may not find it economical to grow pigs beyond 245. He says he isn't sure what consumers will accept as a maximum size but he welcomes the change at Maple Leaf, which he agrees will boost plant efficiencies.
Nap points out, however, that "it does increase the pork supply, which maybe at this stage we don't need because there's lots available." He says Quality Meats, Ontario's other major buyer, "in general feels that their niche will be a smaller portion, so maybe between the two they can nicely fill customers' needs."
In an earlier move to boost profits, Maple Leaf promised striking workers it would carry out a $30-million upgrade at its Burlington Ont. plant "as quickly as feasible," if they accepted a wage roll back. Although employees voted March 6 to accept the company's offer, Davidson admits things are still at the planning stage.
The changes would allow the company to add a second shift, something Nap says the board has been keenly awaiting to alleviate the pressure of increasing hog runs. Delays are being attributed to zoning difficulties, the same obstacle faced by pork producers across the province. "Things don't come easy anymore," Nap observes wryly.
PIC's prairie pigs
Multi-national pig company will start 2,500-sow nucleus herd in West CanadaBY COLIN LAUGHLAN
Move over, Ford. At PIC, quality is also job one. And the pork consumer is the driver, says the man heading up PIC International's reclaimed Canadian franchise. "In the recent past there's been a lot of focus on developing [meat] leanness, but there's never been a premium paid for meat quality.The next step is to differentiate the quality and get a premium paid for that," says Fred Hays, recently-appointed general manager of Pig Improve-ment Company's Canadian operations. Hays holds a PhD in animal physiology and was hired into his new position after nine years' experience in the swine genetics industry, including a stint as general manager of Ontario Swine Improvement. He says he has set his sights on expanding Canada's pig genetics base with the aid of PIC's international resources.
Since the early 1970s, PIC Canada operated as a locally-owned family enterprise mainly separate from PIC International's 30-country franchise network. This spring, as part of its global expansion, PIC purchased back the Canadian franchise, situating it within PIC America's division, headquartered in Kentucky and stretching through Central and South America.
PIC International is currently in the process of relocating its world headquarters to San Francisco from the U.K. Hays believes the quest for quality will generate significant changes in Canada's domestic and export market hogs.
What is quality? "We're going to producers, to packers, to processors, to the hotels and the institutions that use pork to get a definition from them," he says. Some of the desired characteristics to emerge so far are meat odour, colour, water capacity, firmness, and marbling. "For example," Hays says, "water holding capacity is important, because chefs don't want a lot of water loss in cooking.
"And we're now able to remove the colour from the female line we had here, and make it into a white line."
Among the innovations Hays will oversee from his new office in Airdrie, Alta., will be the development of a 2,500-sow nucleus herd, which he confirmed at presstime will be located in Western Canada. "There'll be different genetic programs going on within that nucleus," including advances in swine genetics biotechnology, he said. "We're tuning this whole meat quality business up."
Quebec's pig separatists
"Village for sale" read the placards as anti-pork protesters marched in the village of Saint-Côme in the heart of Quebec's intensive pork region last month.At issue is a proposed 2,000-pig operation two km from the village, and half a kilometre from cottages, reports Quebec farm weekly Terre de Chez Nous. The dispute has now become a regional affair with the citizen's group calling itself "Qualitylife" lobbying neighbouring towns for a ban across the Beauce region south of Quebec City.
In an increasingly acrimonious dispute reminiscent of ones in western Ontario, the Beauce branch of the Quebec farm lobby Union des Producteurs Agricoles has intervened in favour of the producers, who have received 80 letters, including one threatening their children.
On the provincial level, meanwhile, an agro-environmental survey indicates "there's still a lot to be done," admits Quebec pork producers' federation president Clément Pouliot.
The study found that the surplus of manure in Quebec, based on the crops' nitrogen needs, was 5.5 million cubic metres (1.21 billion gallons), requiring 90,000 new ha (225,000 acres) in spreading agreements with neighbours. The study also found that only six per cent of producers injected manure. On the bright side, the average storage capacity was 348 days, and almost all spreading was complete by October. Under tough new rules, Quebec will mandate manure injection by Nov. 1.
Schneider signs up Manitoba pigs
As Maple Leaf Foods battles local opposition to build a pork processing plant in Brandon, rival Schneider Inc. in nearby Winnipeg has reached a supply agreement with Manitoba producers.Manitoba Pork's Perry Mohr tells the Western Producer that pricing in the deal will be competitive with the North American market, but declines to give details on how many of Manitoba's 50,000-head-per-week slaughter are committed.
The deal marks a first for Manitoba Pork since it dissolved its single-desk selling in July, 1996. Mohr says the deal provides some security to producers on both price and supply, but insists sales to other processors will continue. Positive on Schneider's relationship with Manitoba producers, Mohr points to premiums of up to $6 per pig for meeting leanness targets.
Schneider general manager Bill McLean tells the paper the deal "formalizes" current producer contracts, adding that much of the impetus comes from Schneider customers who want to know more about the plant's suppliers. Schneider will step up its communications with producers on how to meet international customers' specifications, he says.
Fed up Down Under
The Canadian pork industry has launched a concerted effort to salvage Canadian pork exports to Australia amid calls for a total ban.Strapped Aussie producers are pointing the finger at Canadian exports, which they charge are subsidized up to 15 per cent. While the Aussie government has so far resisted calls for a ban and offered an A$18-million (C$16-million) compensation package instead, they have launched an investigation. Both the Canadian Pork Council and the Canadian Meat Council have until Nov. 13 to present their case to the Australian government, reports the Quebec farm weekly Terre de Chez Nous.
While 90 per cent of Australian pork imports are from Canada, Australia is only Canada's ninth largest buyer, at 1,481 tonnes in the first five months of 1997. Still, says CPC's Martin Rice, the concern is that an Australian ban would set off a chain reaction among Canada's other small customers such as South Africa or Argentina.
CMC's Robert Weaver told the paper that the Aussies are using Canada as a scapegoat for their industry's woes of late. Despite Canadian exports to Australia dropping by 30 per cent versus 1997, the Australian situation hasn't improved, Weaver noted.
Brits prime their slurry pumps
Embattled British pig producers are taking their plight to the streets in an effort to bring consumers back to their product.While U.K. pork consumption has risen six per cent this year, producers blame cheap European imports of pork raised in countries with less costly welfare standards.
According to Farmers Weekly magazine, producers are in the midst of the deepest recession within memories, with losses averaging C$37 to $50 per pig. Some 2,000 producers from across the U.K. rallied at a British port early August, demanding the imported pork be subject to the same welfare and safety standards.
British consumers are being fooled by imported pork labelled as British because it is cut and packaged in the U.K., they said. "Supermarkets could change labelling overnight. They do it quick enough when it comes to prices," said the Meat and Livestock Commission's Jim Wyllie.
The magazine reports that a "name and shame" protest outside offending stores could follow. One producer ominously warned that "U.K. pig producers have in excess of 30,000 slurry tankers."
Some relief came last month in the form of a $7-million "British is best" pork promotion program.
Vicious Circo
Porcine Circo Virus shows up in Ontario, linked to a ravaging disease that threatens to tarnish a gleaming export image
By ROBERT IRWIN
A mysterious disease discovered in Western Canada a few years ago and recently in Ontario could tarnish the image of Canadian pork and swine breeding stock. In susceptible herds the syndrome causes high losses in nursery pigs. Studies are underway around the world, but scientists aren't sure how to treat or prevent Post-weaning Multi-systemic Wasting Syndrome (PMWS), linked somehow to Porcine Circo Virus (PCV)."It's never good to be the first to report a disease," quips Jacques Chenais, general manager, Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement. Chesnais says Canadian "breeders and producers pride themselves on their health status," but he warns export markets, most notably Australia, could use the situation to shut Canada out.
"The Australians about eight or nine months ago indicated to us that this is of no significance to them," counters Dr. Gilles Dulac, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) veterinarian involved in international negotiations. He says because PCV is prevalent in most countries where pigs are raised, World Trade Organization sanitary and phyto-sanitary guidelines preclude its use as an excuse to block Canadian pork.
Still, in an Australian Pork Newspaper column, Dr. Tony Peacock, executive director of that country's Pig Research and Development Corporation, argues "even if Australia has PCV, we don't appear to have PMWS."
Australian farmers have been complaining that about 10,000 tonnes of pork imported from Canada last year depressed domestic prices by 25 per cent. In 1990, Australia lifted existing quarantine regulations and allowed importers to bring in deboned pork.
Hearings were held recently before the Australian Productivity Commission, which is expected to advise the government Nov. 13 whether action should be taken under the WTO Safeguards Agreement.
Current Australian import protocols require inspectors to ensure processors cook meat at a minimum 56C degrees for 60 minutes to kill the virus that causes Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome. Peacock asserts, however, that PCV may be different: "I am at a loss to understand the decision to assume the virus would be killed at equivalent temperatures to PRRS."
Research is going on at several locations in Western Canada and in Ontario and Quebec. "We're really at the beginning of the research of what we think is an emerging disease," explains Judith Bosse, interim director of the Animal Health and Food Lab at St. Hyacinthe, Que.
"Until now the industry had higher priorities, but it seems from what we are hearing now they are starting to be concerned about it." Bosse observes. Her lab has been investigating PCV for CFIA.
"At this stage it's difficult to comment on the consequences since we don't exactly know the prevalence of the agent in the swine population," Bosse says.
Canada's experience has sparked interest in PCV in the United States, where the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) is currently awarding US$180,000 in research contracts for PMWS and other emerging viruses. Dr. Paul Sundberg, NPPC director of veterinary issues, says the research will allow his country to understand the impact of the virus and decide on control measures.
"Canada was very up front, being on the cutting edge of discovery of the virus and pursuing the circo virus as a possible cause of this wasting syndrome. That's been very helpful to both Canadian and American pork producers," Sundberg observes.
"Our diagnostic labs have gotten requests for tests for [PMWS], tests for circo virus, and we aren't sure if it's because there's an increase in the circo virus prevalence, if it's here in the U.S., or if it's just an increase in awareness." Sundberg concedes that the disease could be well established in the U.S. by the time researchers come up with recommendations for controlling it.
A December 1997 University of Illinois bulletin written by extension veterinarian Dr. Larry Firkins for Illinois swine veterinarians confirms cases of PMWS have shown up in Iowa. "To date all the Midwest cases have had links to Canada through importation of breeding stock or feeder pigs," Firkins points out.
In a recommendation that could prove threatening for Canadian breeders, he cautions that "PMWS should be added to the list of diseases when obtaining the herd health history of a possible source farm."
Dr. Gaylan Josephson, swine health adviser with the Ontario Veterinary College's Animal Health Lab, says management changes in recent years such as the shift to Segregated Early Weaning may have masked the disease's presence in Ontario. "If the syndrome was there it may have been attributed to these changes."
Josephson compares the current PMWS dilemma to AIDS 15 to 20 years ago: "There were two camps. One was saying, 'We've got a potential catastrophe worldwide in the making.'
"The other was saying, 'No big deal - it's confined to a small population and we don't need to be worried.' We know now they were wrong, but there were a lot of prominent, well-respected people who said there was no major concern."