Hog industry on verge of collapse
CANADA - Bacon. Ham. Anything pork related and most people salivate at the thought. But as that $5 per pound bacon sizzles away in the family’s cast iron skillet filling the house with that wondrous aroma, consider the pork producer and the fact he was paid pennies to produce what consumers are paying top dollar for.The hog industry is collapsing, says the Al;berta Farmer news service.
It says that any producer who has had to endure the market place and watch their animals bring in paltry returns.
Mesmerized by the impact the closed US border had on Canada’s cattle industry, a $1.7-billion loss in four years, few have noticed the steady destruction of the hog industry.
For hog producers like Dale Fankhanel the collapsed prices will mean he will sell off the remaining 200 feeders he has and then shut the barns down.
Fankhanel and his son raise pigs on their farm just north of Ferintosh. As a mixed operation they can endure the downturn in the hog industry, but it hasn’t been easy especially when the market will only give them 16 cents per pound on feeder pigs.
“I think this is going to be really serious this time,” said Fankhanel comparing this collapse to the one in 1998-99. “We’re down to so many variables this time.”