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COOL and Canadian isoweans

B

busboy

Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Messages
23
Location
SwMn
I haven't posted for a while now, but I thought I would pass on the effects of COOl on our operation...

We've lost the ability to sell to our 2 closest packers, Swift and Morrell. I know, it really is for my own good, but silly me, I think it sucks that I have to pay freight for a few hundred miles more, if I can even get them scheduled. It's only cost me 50 to 60 k so far, in freight and lost marketing. (3-4 weeks behind leads to major sort losses, but silly me, it's for my own good.) Oh, it put 3, long time hog family farms out of business in Manitoba as well, but I'm sure it's for their own good as well.

Trying to use US sourced pigs...just not the health status of Canadian iso's. But it's for my own good. If this isn't about protectionism, you would all be for real information about the quality of the product, and it's traceability, rather than it's supposed origin.

Sure glad you guys are pushing for COOl on fertilizer and seed and feed and pesticides and cars and oil.
 
I know exactly what you're talking about. Anyone who says COOL has no effect, or doesn't block trade is not seeing the whole picture.

La Broquerie, Manitoba based Hytek Limited has announced it will move approximately 40 thousand swine finishing spaces from the United States to Saskatchewan.

Hytek has purchased four finishing barns in Leroy, Saskatchewan, each capable of accommodating about ten thousand pigs ranging from 50 to 60 pounds up 260 pound marketing weight.

Hytek vice president of production and genetics Claude Vielfaure says the production facilities are being populated now and will supply finished hogs for the company's Neepawa pork processing plant.


Clip-Claude Vielfaure-Hytek Limited
Essentially, since our purchase of Springhill Farms last year, a year ago, we are looking to bring back more of our U.S. destination pigs to Canada so we're able to process them in our Springhill plant.

These animals will be coming from our sow barns in Manitoba.

Again, those pigs from those sow barns were being sold in the U.S. so now we're going to take those pigs from those sow barns and move them directly to these Leroy barns and finish them there and then take the market hogs and bring them back to our Neepawa plant.

We are killing approximately 900 thousand pigs a year at Springhill farms now and, once we finish our wastewater plant which hopefully will be done by the spring 2010, we'll be able to bring capacity up 1.4 million pigs a year.


Vielfaure says the market hogs will be processed into fresh and frozen pork products for sale domestically and around the world.

He notes demands are different depending on where the pork is sold with the domestic market looking for the back ribs, the loins, the hams and so on where as the Asian markets are looking for the legs, the heads and other parts of the pig that we don't normally eat in North America.
Click to expand...

This has generated literally hundreds of jobs in our area due to the hog plant expansion. Good for the workers, but not necessarily good for local hog producers. All this expansion is within one vertically integrated operation. Just another nail in the coffin of small family farms.

But it's for our own good........... :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:
 
busboy said:
I haven't posted for a while now, but I thought I would pass on the effects of COOl on our operation...

We've lost the ability to sell to our 2 closest packers, Swift and Morrell. I know, it really is for my own good, but silly me, I think it sucks that I have to pay freight for a few hundred miles more, if I can even get them scheduled. It's only cost me 50 to 60 k so far, in freight and lost marketing. (3-4 weeks behind leads to major sort losses, but silly me, it's for my own good.) Oh, it put 3, long time hog family farms out of business in Manitoba as well, but I'm sure it's for their own good as well.

Trying to use US sourced pigs...just not the health status of Canadian iso's. But it's for my own good. If this isn't about protectionism, you would all be for real information about the quality of the product, and it's traceability, rather than it's supposed origin.

Sure glad you guys are pushing for COOl on fertilizer and seed and feed and pesticides and cars and oil.
Click to expand...

Talk to the US consumer.....
 
busboy, there are obviously many who just don't get what you are talking about. I and many other producers do get it.

I wish you the best in whatever changes you may face as things unfold. Just remember that your worth as a person is not defined by the growth or contraction of your business. All the best to you.
 
Whats good for pig farmers is not always good for cattlemen- and visa versa...
I remember not too many years ago our area had some hog breeders too- until everyone had access to the cheaper weaner hogs in Canada- and ran those folks out of business...It was about the same time every "free" trade involved bullhauler and Trans X truck packing swinging beef was southbound- as US cattle prices dropped and ranchers went under...

All because USDA allowed importers/packers to perpetuate a lie to US consumers- and pass off imported meat product to them with the USDA stamp as domestic USA raised product- and manipulate down US prices with the Canadian cattle/beef.....

Time to tell folks the TRUTH and let them make an informed decision.
 
Oldtimer said:
Whats good for pig farmers is not always good for cattlemen- and visa versa...
I remember not too many years ago our area had some hog breeders too- until everyone had access to the cheaper weaner hogs in Canada- and ran those folks out of business...It was about the same time every "free" trade involved bullhauler and Trans X truck packing swinging beef was southbound- as US cattle prices dropped and ranchers went under...

All because USDA allowed importers/packers to perpetuate a lie to US consumers- and pass off imported meat product to them with the USDA stamp as domestic USA raised product- and manipulate down US prices with the Canadian cattle/beef.....

Time to tell folks the TRUTH and let them make an informed decision.
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With the packers in the substitute meats, they can swing the other markets like pig and poultry to get out competitors, which is what they are doing.

In the past, the courts saw this strategy and made the packers get out of the other food categories so they couldn't gain market power in this method.

Today, we just have the best courts money can buy.
 
Time to tell folks the TRUTH and let them make an informed decision.
Click to expand...

Such as lost packing jobs in the U.S? At a time of rising unemployment? We live near the hog processing facility in the article I mentioned, and in the past couple of months they have hired on hundreds of new workers. Add the many hundreds of jobs at the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon, and we're talking about significant employment. To the point that as far as the local economy is concerned there is no recession. (Other than for we cattle and hog producers who have skipped recession and gone straight to Depression. :roll: :roll: :roll: )

Such as the fact that Canadian beef makes up about 5% of your supply, yet somehow is totally responsible for any drop in your markets? It must be a very powerful 5% to have all that clout.

Such as the fact that Mexico and Canada buy most of your beef exports?
 
Packing Plants come and go constantly with the changing tide...My God Canadians should be aware of that....

Kato-- when NAFTA came along- I was a proponent-- convinced by a good friend who was a High Muckey Muck in NCBA that it could be good for the country and especially good for our area... Much closer access to Canadian feedlots, yearling pastures, and even slaughter plants- where Canucks could feed them out on their abundance of grain/barley...Boy did we both find out differently....

That lasted only until Canadians put up an artificial trade barrier- decided there was a Canadian herd and a US herd and "ALL US CATTLE WERE DISEASED" (no matter if they ran side by side to Canadian cattle :roll: )... Then when grain prices bottomed- and they lost their railroad subsidy- Canadians took land out of grain production- greatly increased their cattle herds- and we hardly saw a cow go north...Except for the occasional rancher coming down to Stevensons, Ohldes, Diamond D's for genetics- I haven't seen a Canadian cattle buyer in years- and seldom did in the almost 20 years NAFTA has been in effect...

All one way traffic...Southbound...The sad joke around here was to get out of the way or the TransX trucks will run you over in there hurry to lower US cattle/beef prices....

And we saw the true effect the Canadian cattle/beef have on prices- when BSE closed the border- and the US saw "record" high cattle prices that had never been seen before- and were never seen again after the border was reopened to Canadian beef....
I really was starting to feel sorry for Canadian producers until the kicker came into play- when the border was closed due to BSE- and Canadian producers teats were in a wringer-and the packers couldn't access their cheap captive supply of beef---- they came out with this "North American Herd" bullcrap- after years of promoting the separate herds..

Canada set the precedent- with a US cattle herd and a Canadian cattle herd- and now those cattle and beef from them should be identified thru to the consumer so they can make an informed choice...
 
Kato said:
Time to tell folks the TRUTH and let them make an informed decision.
Click to expand...

Such as lost packing jobs in the U.S? At a time of rising unemployment? We live near the hog processing facility in the article I mentioned, and in the past couple of months they have hired on hundreds of new workers. Add the many hundreds of jobs at the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon, and we're talking about significant employment. To the point that as far as the local economy is concerned there is no recession. (Other than for we cattle and hog producers who have skipped recession and gone straight to Depression. :roll: :roll: :roll: )

Such as the fact that Canadian beef makes up about 5% of your supply, yet somehow is totally responsible for any drop in your markets? It must be a very powerful 5% to have all that clout.

Such as the fact that Mexico and Canada buy most of your beef exports?
Click to expand...

Consumers want to know where their food comes from. They don't care about isoweans, structure of the industry, etc... they just want to know where their food comes from so they can decide if they trust the source enough to feed that product to their family.
 
Kato,I hope you get all the hog plants you need,and the illegals to work them,I say good riddance................good luck
 
Then when grain prices bottomed- and they lost their railroad subsidy- Canadians took land out of grain production- greatly increased their cattle herds-
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And why did we lose the subsidy? Because of pressure from the United States, that's why. When the Crow rate was abolished, in our part of the country the freight rate on oats and barley was higher than the price of the grain :shock: :shock: :shock:

What would you do in this situation???? The loss of the Crow rate, which had been in effect since the railways were built in the late 1800's totally upset the balance of agriculture in Western Canada.

As for the higher cattle prices, they were strictly due to the difference in currency. Nothing else. Don't forget, we had higher costs to go with them, also due to the difference in currency. Since we are your greatest export market, we paid dearly in other ways for the currency difference.

And why was our dollar lower? Was it because of any problem with the Canadian economy in general? No. It was mostly due to a higher American dollar. Since your country is primarily an importing country, you gain by having a higher dollar, and a lower Canadian dollar is a byproduct of this policy.

Once again, circumstances which the Canadian cattle producer had nothing to do with. So don't blame us, we're just trying to survive.

As for the illegal immigrants, there aren't any working in our plants here. It's a lot easier to become legal in this country, so the illegal thing isn't worth it. We'd prefer it that way. In fact, just before Christmas 50 new legal immigrants from the Ukraine moved to town. These are all young well educated people and will likely bring families along in a few months. They are welcome here, just as were the grandparents of a lot of local people who also came from that part of the world a hundred years ago.
 
RobertMac said:
Busboy, if you are in the USA and COOL is protectionism, how is it the cause of your pain?
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From what he said is the plants that kill Canadian born hogs are farther away and he can't source as good or as healthy US isoweans. Also with the restriction in kill days he is behind on his sort.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
RobertMac said:
Busboy, if you are in the USA and COOL is protectionism, how is it the cause of your pain?
Click to expand...

From what he said is the plants that kill Canadian born hogs are farther away and he can't source as good or as healthy US isoweans. Also with the restriction in kill days he is behind on his sort.
Click to expand...

There was no shortage of good weaner hogs a few years ago...It was the guys that went to the cheap Canadian supply when the CDN dollar was worth about 50 cents that put those US hog breeders out of business....
 
Number one issue for any w-f operator is source of pigs. Good pigs are always a challenge to source. Canadian health status has always been better, primarily due to proximity to finishers and other hogs in general. US pigs that are available have often been extras from their flow, or often times, sup par quality/health. APP, PRRS, Myco, Circo etc. have been more of an issue with US pigs than Canada's, especially if you went with western Canadian sources.

Many friends of mine are in Pipestone Systems, and their health has never been up to ours coming from Manitoba.

Prices never really favored one pig or another in the past, as before COOL, you were buying a commodity, priced according to its quality. (kind of like Canadian fertilizer)

I've been looking, but I just haven't been able to find gas pumps that list the country of origin, and that is one area that the consumer would really care about, so I'm sure you COOL supporters will get right on that.
 
oldtimer you're the sterotypical american - whatever is bad it's somebody else's fault. in your case canada is the best scapegoat. it's probably the fault of the chinese that your country is such a wreck economically, too. i guess nothing in the usa should change; the rest of the world should change for your benefit. hint - those days are gone. read fareed zakaria's 'the post-american world' and find out how it really is.
 
Hey Don, long time no see!

OT, your country is not the only one to lose small hog operators. It's happened here too.

It's got more to do with the move to bigger sized operations on both sides of the border than any competition with Canada. We used to keep sows, and sell weanlings, but that entire section of the hog business is now gone, due mainly to the fact that there is not a barn in the country that will accept a pig that's been to an auction. :shock: :shock: As far as weanlings are concerned it's been either get big or get out. Or finish your own hogs.

I can vouch for the health standards, having worked at a vet clinic that had a number of large sow herds as clients. We in the cattle business would be amazed at the biosecurity involved in a hog operation. The feed trucks aren't even allowed near the barns. You shower in and shower out. I know of one operation where employees are told that if they are at a gas station filling up their trucks, and a load of hogs pulls into the lot, they are not to report to work for a specific number of days. That's how serious the health status is. That's an indication of how hard they worked to develop this market, only to see it gone.

So now those weanlings will be finished here instead, and don't for a minute think that that means the pork won't find it's way into the U.S. It will just get there without contributing to your economy on the way. Just as beef will. Big business will find a way to make it work, and profit by it, and the small guys are out of luck. Cattlemen and hogmen ... both sides of the border.
 
don said:
oldtimer you're the sterotypical american - whatever is bad it's somebody else's fault. in your case canada is the best scapegoat. it's probably the fault of the chinese that your country is such a wreck economically, too. i guess nothing in the usa should change; the rest of the world should change for your benefit. hint - those days are gone. read fareed zakaria's 'the post-american world' and find out how it really is.
Click to expand...

Nope- actually I was just trying to show that with every decision that government, in either or all countries, make- it will benefit some- and it will hurt others- and NAFTA- with all its variances for each group and Corporate entity- plus the differences in laws/regulations and currency is neither a "free" trade or a "fair" trade agreement....

True free trade does not exist in either of our countries....
 
Kato said:
...and the small guys are out of luck. Cattlemen and hogmen ... both sides of the border.
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I agree and believe this is a result of industry concentration. We definitely have an uphill fight and we need to stop helping those that are concentrating the industry. We have to support independents or we will lose the option. COOL helps our fight.
 

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