Hog farmers will see profits in 2009: Davis

NAPANEE—Mark Davis, co-owner of Hay Bay Genetics, believes the hog industry will recover in the summer of 2009.

Lean hogs for June 2009 are contracting for 90 cents to 95 cents on the Chicago Commodity Exchange, he says. "As long as corn doesn’t go above $180 a tonne, we’ll be able to make the black."

But only the very efficient producers will make it at those prices. "They’ll have to have their ducks lined up," he said.

Though much of the surplus in the Canadian market will disappear over the next year, Canadian farmers will have to contend with uncertainty created by the Country of Origin Labelling coming into effect in the U.S. in September. U.S. importers are uncertain of the impact the rule will have on Canadian pork.

Meantime, the sow cull program, whereby a farmer will be given $225 for every cull hog, will help some farmers who were going out of business, he says. "But the program hasn’t helped us."

Wiener pigs have been coming into Ontario from western Canada for the cost of transportation, he said.

Hay Bay Genetics, near Napanee, has 2,700 pure bred sows that produce 60,000 piglets annually, half of them are wieners.