If environmentalists in Oregon have their way, cattle will be banned from stream banks anywhere in the state.

The proposed new law is called the Oregon Clean Streams Initiative. If there is enough support for a ballot, voters will have the chance to vote on it during the fall elections. The law would require farmers and ranchers to fence a 100-foot exclusion zone on either side of a stream, and demand that cattle be watered away from rivers. With an estimated 10,000 miles of rivers in the state, fencing is expected to be a tremendous cost for farmers. Polls indicate that beef producers are losing the battle on this issue so far.

An equally financially-crippling law could be passed on in Ontario, warns Ann Clark, associate professor of crop science, University of Guelph. Clark questions whether cattle must be fenced out of streams to clean them up.

"There's a very strong, knee- jerk almost, reaction that cattle are incompatible with a healthy ecosystem," she says. After reviewing published scientific studies about what causes pollution in watersheds in western Ontario, she wonders whether such a ban is justified.

Clark's review, funded by the Agriculture Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service, was completed last July but only officially released recently. The study will be the subject of two presentations at a joint symposium this summer by the prestigious Canadian Agronomy Society and the Canadian Society of Animal Science that will focus on riparian ecosystems - in simpler terms, riverbanks. The issue of livestock-watercourse interaction is "hot stuff and hot stuff nationally, not just here in Ontario," Clark says.

But a blanket exclusion of cattle isn't supported by facts, she says and argues that row cropping, milk-house waste water, and even faulty rural septic systems, are responsible for much of the pollution in streams across western Ontario. The worst cause of pollution may be tile drains, which can take liquid manure spread on fields into streams quickly. Still, there is pressure to fence cattle out of streams.

Much of the dated research blaming cattle access to rivers and ponds for degradation applies to the arid American West, not to humid Eastern Canada "where water is a less powerful attractant," Clark says.

The agricultural conservation movement has switched its focus from soil erosion to non-point source pollution in just the last few years. And non-point source pollution includes effluent from pastured livestock, whether it deserves it or not, she says.

Clark is critical of the Clean Up Rural Beaches (CURB) program, which Ontario conservation authorities have used over the last four years to clean up beaches closed because of high bacteria levels in the summer. The authorities doled out Ministry of Environment money to farmers for various remedial measures including watering systems as long as cattle were fenced out of streams. CURB, a victim of funding cuts, wrapped up March 31.

Clark says in the Ausable River, which drains into Lake Huron at the popular resort town of Grand Bend, CURB grants were used to pay farmers to fence cattle out of the stream. But it was lake- and river-side septic systems which got the blame for most of the coliform bacteria which sometimes closes beaches.

Clark is critical that "only one solution is allowed" as far as funding alternative watering systems was concerned. To get funding for an alternative watering system, for example, a farmer must fence cattle out of the creek.

"The premise is that exclusion is the only solution."

Rather than spend money on building fences to keep out cattle, which only solves part of the problem, she advocates building constructed wetlands, a new technology which would also clean up other sources of pollution.

While cattle can be damaging to rivers by ruining stream banks and increasing sedimentation, management can greatly reduce the damage without increasing the expense, Clark says. There's less damage done to stream banks in the dry part of the season, for example. And there is some proof that rotational pasturing of creek banks can keep down the woody growth which is also harmful to fish habitat.

This summer Clark and University of Guelph animal behaviourist Ian Duncan will run programs to monitor animal behaviour. They hope to prove that cattle cross creeks at only two or three places in any given pasture. Clark believes that the proper footing under the water will encourage the cattle to cross there, but not to linger and urinate in the stream.

Tracey Ryan, Grand River Conservation Authority, Cambridge, defends the CURB program, while admitting that it is now a moot point because the program is dead.

"It didn't work for everybody but it was voluntary and there was no arm twisting, not in our watershed anyway."

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Prairie single desk assailed

With Manitoba's single-desk selling coming to an end July 1 as a result of massive meat packer pressure on the Filmon government, there are now stirrings in Alberta. Fletcher's Fine Foods executives, doubling weekly hog slaughter to 40,000, have told Alberta Pork Producers Development Corporation officials that marketing must be completely revamped.

Undaunted by the Ontario government's support of agency selling and an open auction in a dispute with packers early this year, Fletcher executive Greg Whalley says contracting directly with producers is a wave of the future. He says systems must be changed to handle this packer demand. Fletcher's, until recently owned by the Alberta pork board, soon hopes to offer producers a plan that follows a carcass from slaughter to the prime cuts. The resulting information would give direction on feeding programs and selecting genetics. But Whalley says this must wait until the board gives up its agency or monopoly powers. This proposal raised producer hackles, especially the old ones who recall the market rigging and under-pricing that prevailed before the board was launched in 1968.

Calgary business consultant Daryl Hutchings contends that marketing changes are needed if Alberta's hog industry is to expand. His statistics suggest Canada's hog industry shows little growth. This affects all packing plants aiming for larger throughput. But his assertions and figures seem short on facts. Last year marketings jumped an impressive seven per cent, notes Canadian Pork Council (CPC) analyst Martin Pelletier.

This pushed production to an all-time yearly high of 17.9 million hogs, an increase of 1.4 million animals over the previous year, he told Farm & Country. And CPC executive Martin Rice adds that exports rocketed 20 per cent to $965 million worth of cuts, offal and live animals. Japanese buyers took 23 per cent of exports while movements to the U.S. dropped 10 percentage points between 1991 and last year. Rice says Canada's pork industry is in good shape. Higher short-term growth than the seven per cent could soften producer prices. There is now a good balance of substantial growth and sustained prices. During last December's Ontario marketing hearings, Maple Leaf complained that the pork board's monopoly placed a brake on needed expansion. Perth producer Jim Van Ness said the answer was simple: a free market where production is stimulated by higher prices: "You pay more, and you'll get more," he told the Toronto sessions, adding that farmers traditionally always respond to price incentives.

Meanwhile, Alberta pork board leader Roger Charbonneau cautions his producers to move astutely. Manitoba's Agriculture Minister Harry Enns killed Manitoba Pork after major packers and integrators complained that producer-run marketing slowed expansion. This draconian move was done despite 76 per cent of producers backing single-desk selling. Earlier, packing and feed companies had assured Enns that Manitoba's hog numbers could be doubled to 4 million with Manitoba Pork out of the way.

Alberta's Charbonneau says his producers must learn from the Manitoba setback. He struck a committee to discuss pork marketing options. With public meetings scheduled across the province, producer awareness likely will become clear to local politicians enchanted by the prospect of large scale hog production and new tax revenues. - JP

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Family keeps pace in changing industry

For a quarter-century, Doug and Carol McLeod of Stardobie Farms in Embro, developed a solid reputation in Canada's pig community. Both are outspoken and feel the family-run breeding unit is the key to a vibrant industry, largely because it has a flexibility lacked by the multi-nationals.

Like so many farmers, the McLeods started modestly with a few sows, but perhaps more modestly than most. Their house lacked power, running water and a heating system. But it was a start, and the newlyweds sank all their money into animals and barn improvements. Borrowings were 115 per cent of equity.

Their small commercial herd slowly grew larger. Intense culling and specialization brought them into the highly competitive purebred world. Only four years ago they had 250 females but limited farrowing space gave the family cause for thought. Another barn was needed and major growth was underway.

Their daughter, Deborah Francis, a great pig lover, explains that weaning was getting earlier - 18 to 20 days. "That wasn't right. We prefer 25 because it gives them [piglets] a better start." Deb was a city executive secretary who quickly tired of corporate life. Farming, while less lucrative, made for a life with purpose and now she runs her parents' farrowing structure.

Deb's husband, James, is a Ph.D chemistry research associate at McMaster University.

Carol says the 1992 expansion, starting with the farrowing unit, led to 40 x 80-foot gilt barn, a 50 x 180-foot finishing barn, more buildings and a central feed complex. Deb adds that only last fall the family added another 1,200-head finishing barn containing three all-in, all-out rooms, each with separate air flow, heating and manure handling.

The rapid finishing improvement and better feed conversion were immediate advantages, better than budgeted projections. But Deb adds the state-of-the-art building has one disadvantage, at least for her: "We've now got 25 hogs per pen charging at you [when weighed prior to marketing] instead of the old 16. Apart from that, the system is just great and pays for itself over and over again," she says.

Doug notes that all new barns are naturally ventilated, likely a little more expensive at the outset but the payback is well worth it. The new weaner barn adds an extra one-kg-per-youngster compared with a fan-ventilated unit. The farrowing barn yields an extra half-pig per litter "and you work out the economics when our pigs now average 2.25 litters a year. There's a lot of money there."

Along the expansion highway, the closed herd grew to 450 purebred animals, with genetics coming from some of North America's best studs, often Ontario Swine Improvement or taken by C-section - usually performed on the farm by Dr. Ben Miltonberg of Perth Veterinary Services, Stratford.

The McLeods made the big time with their 250 Yorks,150 Landrace and 50 Duroc and Hampshires. Carol says her customers have three preferences when seeking new or replacement stock. First, they want a frame "on which to hang plenty of red meat." This also means "large hams, solid legs, and good length and depth...and since our average carcass index [cull gilts and barrows] runs between 107 and 108, you get an idea of what's wanted."

The second preference is for days-to-market. "Our average now has dropped to 150, with some down to 137," she asserts. The third preference centres on backfat depth. "You've got to be careful here. We've found that the ultra-lean animals don't make the best mothers. While we've never had PSE problems, there are reports that some of the ultra leans in other herds don't always have the best quality carcasses." The biggest commercial demand is for F1 hybrid gilts and top crossing boars, Doug says. Early this month he started supplying 300-plus gilts to a farmer expanding from a 20-sow base. This is part of a pattern, at least in his experience. While some farmers still are quitting the business, often with fewer than 80 females, others are looking for rapid herd growth.

High grain prices help speed a farm family's exit from livestock. He says that with corn around $6.85 a bushel - the price he paid early in the month - cash cropping seems an attractive alternative. Corn and soybean land in the Oxford county area also makes for an attractive alternative: rent it to a neighbour at around $200 an acre. On the other hand, with market prices at $185 a hundred kg, hogs don't seem a losing proposition for a land-based producer.

In his own case, the family owns 650 acres near Embro, with 590 cropped. This land provides 75 per cent of the operation's feed needs, and usually the balance is hedged. With 10,000 pigs a year going through their barns, keeping feed costs down becomes an imperative. That's why the family opted for complete on-farm mixing, including a computerized corn drying system which helped eliminate the need for an employee. It replaced high-moisture corn which does not work well with automated feeding.

Deb explains that each batch of feed is weighed carefully. There are constant comparisons between selected pre-mixes, now Grand Valley and Kenpal.

Her preference is for a two-stage starter. Her own mix costs less than half of a commercial ration, with an average daily gain better by 10 per cent. Deb's younger brother, Rob, 17, helps in the barns and feed complex after school, as well as looking after the gilts and a finishing barn. He has only one career in mind: farming, like his parents and Deb.

Doug thinks most efficient enterprise likely will range between 300 and 1,000 sows, depending on the family size and degree of high-tech automation. The Smithfield-style food corporations are now hammered by high grain prices, because they lack a land base and are forced to buy on the open market. Smithfield barely broke even in its last quarter, and higher grain prices lie ahead. Moreover, Premium Standard Farms now needs US$43 million to service current debt. The bad news for some producers lies in the eventual disappearance of the traditional 80-sow operation and the part-time producer, he says. They either will quit or quadruple in size. Today's hog farming calls for intense specialization, large capital injections, and more pigs. "It's called economy of scale...and the family pork producer will remain a large core of our industry," Doug says.