The 75 million dollar Hog Farm Transition Program is part of a federal pork industry restructuring plan which, based on a tendering process, offers compensation to hog producers who agree to idle production facilities for a minimum of three years.

Approximately 10 million dollars will be allocated under the first round.

Canadian Pork Council public relations manager Gary Stordy explains, due to delays in processing registrations, the deadline for submitting bids under the first round was extended to 4 November.

Gary Stordy-Canadian Pork Council

Just so that producers are aware, they are able to fax in their bids to the program administrators but they are required to follow-up with the original copy and that's important.

Producers will not know if they are successful or not and will not be told if they are successful or not until we receive the original copy after the fact.

If, in the perfect situation, if all the information is correct and the bid form's there and it's a successful bid, producers will be contacted by the administrators either by email or fax or registered mail telling them that they've been successful.

For producers who have not been successful, they will be notified and they will also receive the bid form for the second tender that's going to take place 18 November, is tentatively set for 18 November.

Mr Stordy expects it to take a few days to review the tenders from the first round of bidding and to confirm the information.

He notes the number of follow-up rounds and the amount of money to be awarded during each of those rounds have not yet been finalized.