World Pork Expo
Who attends World Pork Expo? Thousands of U.S. and global pork producers, industry professionals and industry experts attend each year. If you’re part of the pork industry, you should be part of World Pork Expo
What and When & Where is World Pork Expo? The world’s largest pork industry-specific trade show brings together pork producers and industry professionals from around the world for three days of education, innovation and networking. Wednesday, June 7 – Friday, June 9, 2017 at Iowa State Fairgrounds, Des Moines, Iowa Why should I attend World Pork Expo? There’s something for everyone — an expansive trade show, educational seminars, industry updates and networking. And, don’t forget the delicious pork served across the fairgrounds!
Check on line for details and updates www.worldpork.org •
Alberta Pork Congress
The dates for the 43rd annual Alberta Pork Congress are June 14 & 15, 2017. The 2 day trade show takes place at Westerner Park in Red Deer, Alberta.
As of press time the trade show is totally sold out, so now expanding to include extra booth space.
Following set up on Tuesday June 13th, Swine & Cheese will be on the trade show floor from 6 – 8pm. The trade show floor is open Wednesday June 14 from 9am – 5 pm. Followed by the Awards Banquet Dinner at the Harvest Centre starting with a reception at 5:30pm , dinner at 6:30pm. Thursday June 15th the trade show floor is open 9am – 4.pm Immediately after is the Barbeque right in the Parkland Pavilion 4 – 6pm.
Contact the office for your lunch, BBQ and banquet tickets. Plus to book your last minute booth space. For details or information contact Kate Cheney or Kimberly Nield at 403.244.7821 or email kate@conventionall.com or kimberly@conventionall.com •
Ontario Pork Congress
Stratford will play host for the annual Ontario Pork Congress June 21 & 22,2017 For details and information check out porkcongress.on.ca •
Porkapalooza
Alberta Pork is proud to be the title sponsor again this year for the 4th annual Porkapalooza.
What is Porkapalooza? The Porkapalooza BBQ Festival is a community event showcasing the art and culture of BBQ. It is organized by the Porkapalooza BBQ Festival Society with generous financial support from Alberta Pork and help from our event team Mison Consulting and EKG Entertainment. At its heart, it is a BBQ competition but encompasses all the components of a festival with local food trucks, beer gardens, food demonstration stage, a Kids Zone playground and plenty of entertainment.
The Porkapalooza BBQ Festival Society is a charitable society with a mandate to end hunger and therefore will be sponsoring a number of food-related charities. The fourth annual Porkapalooza 2017 will be held June 10th & 11th at Northlands in Edmonton.
See you at the Big Meat Up. For details and information check out the website www.porkapalooza.ca •
Red Deer Swine Technology Workshop
The planning has begun for the annual Red Deer Swine Technology Workshop. The annual one day workshop will take place in Red Deer at the Sheraton Wednesday October 18th . More details will be available in the June July edition. •
SASK Pork Symposium
Mark your calendars for the 40th annual Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium. The Symposium will be held Tuesday November 14th and Wednesday November 15th, 2017. As in previous years the Saskatoon Inn in Saskatoon SK will be the venue. More details will be available in future editions of Prairie Hog Country. •
Brandon Hog & Livestock Show
Brandon Hog & Livestock Show, formally known as Hog Days, will be held in December. The one day show will be at the Keystone Center in Brandon, MB on Thursday December 14th, 2017. Details and exhibitor information will be available in the months to come. •
Meat Council Welcomes Budget
Canada’s meat packing and processing industry praised the first Liberal budget for increasing funding for the Canadian Food inspection Agency. “We were very pleased with the government’s commitment to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency,” said Christopher White, president and chief executive officer for the Canadian Meat Council. “Food safety and the integrity of the system is paramount and we look for ways to continue to work with CFIA to deliver on their mandate,” he said.
e also praised the “commitment to deliver through Innovation Canada the six Economic Growth Strategy Tables, in particular agri food, which is of paramount importance to the industry.” The budget says Canada is the world’s fifth-ranked food exporting nation. •
— By Jim Romahn
Canadian Pork Responds to Global Demand and Breaks Export Records Again
Recently released 2016 Canadian pork export statistics show the Canadian pork industry can fill global demand when favourable terms of access to foreign markets exist. The Canadian Pork Council (CPC) takes a proactive position in support of international market access. It is a strong advocate for pursuing new or expanding existing trade agreements to increase market access or prevent deterioration in Canada’s competitive position in a market.
“Pork producers understand that market access is of paramount importance to the sustainability of the country and the hog industry,” stated CPC Chair Rick Bergmann. “The development of international market opportunities like Japan and China creates Canadian jobs across the country, attracts investment and contributes to growing the economy.”
In 2016, the pork industry exported 1.246 million tons of pork value at $3.8 billion to over 100 counties. The United States, China and Japan remain Canada’s top three pork export markets in both volume and value. Japan continued as a high valued market worth $1.07 billion for Canadian pork. Demand for Canadian pork in the Chinese market increased by 144 per cent in 2016. Canada shipped approximately 12,500 forty-foot shipping containers filled with 312,000 tonnes of Canadian pork across the pacific to China. The $580 million in sales of Canadian pork to China is an increase of 157 per cent.
“Canadian hog producers, pork processors and meat traders and the many other companies in Canada that provide inputs and services to our industry have a very strong interest in Canada aggressively pursuing further progress toward reducing agri-food trade barriers and trade-distorting subsidies, and achieving additional market access,” added Bergmann.
The globally competitive Canadian hog and pork industry generates $13.1 billion in economic activity and 31,000 on-farm jobs. Another 69,000 Canadians rely on the pork sector for their livelihoods. Well over 70 per cent of the industry’s output is now exported, with pork and pork products shipped to almost 100 countries. •
Trump Warned to Avoid COOL
The Republican chairman of the United States Senate agriculture committee has warned President Donald Trump to scrap any intentions to implement Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) regulations.
Trump is rumoured to want to bring back COOL as part of his promises to revamp trade agreements to make them better for Americans. But Senator Pat Roberts from Kansas warned that the World Trade Organization could punish the U.S. for implanting COOL requirements.
“We’ve been down this road before,” Roberts said. “We fixed the issue of COOL in 2015.” “We don’t need to go down that road again. We narrowly escaped about $4 billion … in retaliatory tariffs against the United States. “I do not think we need a constantly changing list of key elements of a model trade agreement …,” he said of the Trump promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“What we need is a U.S. Trade Representative confirmed … and in place who will embark on a robust trade policy.” Trump is expected to soon sign two new executive orders, one that would require the review of all existing trade deals and the other to review and change government purchasing policies. •
— By Jim Romahn
Pork Council Talks Trade with China
The Canadian Pork Council says it is participating in consultations about a free trade deal with China. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced exploratory discussions in September.
The Government of Canada is now looking for feedback from individuals, businesses, civil society organizations, labour unions, academics, indigenous groups and provincial and territorial governments. Consultations are open until June 2.
“Trade agreements have great importance to Canada’s pork producers who work hard to develop a global reputation as a reliable supplier of safe, wholesome, high-quality pork,” says CPC chair Rick Bergmann.
“With 70 per cent of Canada’s hog industry’s output being exported, international market opportunities like China creates stable jobs across the country, attracts investments and contributes to growing the economy.”
Canada currently exports more than 326,000 tonnes of pork and pork products to China, an increase of 144 per cent from the previous year. •
— By Jim Romahn
Trump NAFTA Reform Could be Good News
If Trump aims for major reforms on agriculture trade by scrapping the North American Free Trade Agreement, he could be shooting himself in the foot. At new study by Al Mussell and Doug Hedley of Agri-Food Economic Systems based in Guelph finds that the U.S. food industry is a major beneficiary of NAFTA as it exists. Food processors import raw materials from Canada and the U.S. processors export their products to Canadians.
It’s what has concerned Canadians for a couple of decades as they have watched processing plants, such as Heinz ketchup at Leamington and Kellogg’s breakfast cereals in London, close and transfer operations to the U.S. “The U.S. food processing industry is vulnerable to any change limiting its access to Canadian bulk or intermediate product imports and/or the Canadian consumer market for its outputs”, says Hedley, Agri-Food Economic Systems Associate and co-author of the policy note. “Canada has wrestled with how to effectively expand and retain its food processing sector to process Canadian farm products.
“Meanwhile, the U.S. has been a major beneficiary of its imports of Canadian bulk and intermediate products in expanding its food processing industry- with ready access to the Canadian market for the output.”
The threat to the U.S. from Mexico in NAFTA is reduced access to imports of fruits and vegetables that benefit from Mexican labour. This workforce is scarce in the U.S. and poised to become further limited due to Trump’s proposed changes in U.S. immigration policy. Mussell says “the evidence does not support U.S. agri-food as victim of NAFTA, and the U.S. actually has much to lose in a NAFTA renegotiation.
“Understanding what is at stake will condition the negotiating positions of Canada and Mexico in agri-food, and should give pause to the U.S. in its pursuit of NAFTA renegotiation.” •
— By Jim Romahn
Alberta’s Livestock Industries Take Charge on Housing
Alberta’s livestock industries are taking strong steps to lead, innovate and manage rising expectations around the increasingly high-profile issue of animal housing, with an aim to support a “Home Sweet Home” for livestock that optimizes welfare and production priorities.
Progress, challenges and opportunities related to continued advancement in livestock housing were outlined at a recent Alberta Farm Animal Care (AFAC) Advisory Council session in Red Deer. The session designed for AFAC members featured speakers from across different livestock species and production sectors, with an aim to support discussion and debate, information sharing and idea generation.
“Keeping up-to-date, ensuring proper approaches and championing ongoing advances in livestock housing continues to be a major focus of Alberta livestock industries,” says Brent Bushell, General Manager of the Western Hog Exchange and AFAC Finance Chair, who chaired the Advisory Council session on livestock housing. “There are vast differences between livestock species and the unique challenges faced by different sectors with respect to housing. Yet all share a common goal of supporting a high level of care and welfare for the animals while continually improving based on new knowledge and opportunities. Responsible care, including housing considerations, is supported by Codes of Practice and other key resources, guidelines and standards for each species. At the same time, all sectors need to always look ahead and keep improving.”
For the swine industry, among the most high-profile issues has been sow housing, with trends now pointing toward a total phase out of sow gestation crates by 2022. The industry has made solid gains in shifting to new housing systems for all aspects of pig production, however an ongoing challenge is the cost burden, says Javier Bahamon, Quality Assurance and Production Manager with Alberta Pork. “The big question is ‘Who pays?’ Demands are coming from retailers, consumers and government. It’s difficult if the cost burden is placed too heavily on the producers alone. But our industry is committed to leadership and working with stakeholders, to take the right path forward.”
“A hurdle all of us face as livestock sectors is anthropomorphism, whereby the public place human attributes and needs on the animals or think of them more like domestic pets. There’s a big knowledge gap. It’s important we keep making progress to reach out and improve public understanding.” •
Incorporating Health and Safety in the Decision-making Process
Canadian pork production has made a tremendous transition from smaller family farms into large-scale high-production barns. This transition has spurred several process changes and technological advancements throughout the Pork Value Chain. So let’s say you are presented with a new technology, tool, or method to help production. How do you decide if it is going to have a net benefit to your business?
There are a lot of things to consider: implementation and maintenance costs, productivity impacts, worker and manager preferences, food safety and animal handling regulations. Worker health and safety is another consideration that can impact the bottom line. For example, if a new tool increases risk factors for injury, injury and work loss may require overtime or recruiting and training replacement workers to make up for absenteeism. Although technological innovations may have an impact on worker health and safety, these impacts (whether positive or negative) can be difficult to quantify and integrate with business decisions.
To address this, the Prairie Swine Centre is collaborating with the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan to evaluate the health and safety effects of new technologies. This will help producers decide if they want to adopt a new technology. The goal of this project is to develop a suite of performance measures (a ‘toolkit’) which can be applied to decision-making about to new technologies. The specific technology we are investigating in this study is needle-less injectors, and we are comparing them with conventional needle injectors in a comprehensive evaluation that attempts to incorporate all the decision-making factors.
This last summer we conducted ergonomic evaluations at the Prairie Swine Centre during nursery pig injections and piglet processing. More than 650 injections were assessed using electromyography (EMG) to measure muscle activation and forces in the hand and wrist, as well as a posture sensor glove which records finger, hand, and wrist position during injection tasks. Processing is currently underway to determine muscle force and hand/wrist posture for each injection method. The study is still ongoing. This year we will conduct interviews on worker preferences, compare injury rates before and after the adoption of the needle-less injector, and evaluate the cost of each method. •
China is Juicy Export Target
The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance has issued a report drawing attention to tremendous export opportunities in China for Canadians.
As the Chinese economy continues to grow, there is increased demand for meat, processed foods, dining out and convenience foods – i.e. a typical Western diet.
Canadian exports to China have steadily increased, even during the economic crisis of 2008, and reached $6.2 billion in 2015.
Canola accounts for half of that, but Canada also sells China soybeans, pulses, pork, wheat, barley, beef genetics, processed foods, malt, seafoods, sugar (mainly as a food ingredient) and hides and skins.
China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, but has not been very good at adhering to some of its standards, such as those relating to sanitary and phytosanitary standards.
Moreover, Chinese officials tend to relax or tighten import hurdles to match domestic supply and demand, making it difficult to predict when sales orders may soar or slump.
“Exporters from around the world have consistently raised concerns regarding China’s use of non-tariff barriers to manage imports and its failure to comply with international standards and science based decision making,” says the report.
“Canada experienced this when China placed import restrictions on Canadian beef following the discovery of BSE (mad cow’s disease) in Canada and on pork with the discovery of H1N1 (a strain of influenza). “In both cases, China failed to acknowledge Canada’s internationally-recognized animal health status and to resume trade in a timely manner,” the report says.
“China also maintains a zero-tolerance policy on pathogens, such as salmonella, E-coli, and listeria, and on residues of veterinary drugs, metals, pesticides and other products.
“There is a risk that Canadian meat products may be rejected due to inconsistencies between Canadian and Chinese residue and microbiological standards,” the report says.
“China has also shown inconsistency in the application of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and other measures between domestic and imported goods and across ports of entry.
“Customs administration is considered to be slow and overly onerous in China requiring that importers and exporters secure a host of permits, licenses and certificates.
“There are also concerns that China alters the administration requirements to temper the flow of imports where required. Canada also faces delays in custom clearance.
“As part of its FTA (free trade agreement) with China, New Zealand secured a commitment for 48-hour clearance of imported goods through customs and reports that, while not achieved in all cases, this requirement has improved customs flow.” Australia also has a free-trade agreement with China.
United States trade analysts predict that if they could negotiate a free-trade agreement, its agricultural exports could increase by $3.9 billion a year. The report says that’s an indication of how important a deal could be for Canada.
However, it also says there are no signs that negotiations will begin any time soon. •
— By Jim Romahn
Farm Safety Improving
Statistics indicate Canadian farmers are heeding safety advice. The Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting service found that the death rate that averaged 116 per year from 1990 to 2001 declined to 85 for the decade from 2002 to 2012. Between 2003 to 2012, farm machinery continued to be involved in most agriculture-related fatalities with runovers, rollovers and being pinned or struck by a machine component were the main reasons for fatalities. Canadian Agricultural Injury Reporting (CAIR) is an integrated national surveillance project of the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association. •
— By Jim Romahn
Another Ontario PED Outbreak
There has been an outbreak of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus late February in a hog-finisher barn in Halidmand-Norfolk, Ontario It’s the first case in Ontario since June 22 and shatters optimism that the disease has finally been brought under control. •
— By Jim Romahn
Olymel Honours Their Own
Awards were presented by Cliff Ehr Olysky’s Director of Production at the first annual Contract Grower meeting held on March 8, 2017 in Red Deer Alberta. A tour of the Olymel plant took place in the morning followed by lunch, company updates and awards in the afternoon.
Categories included highest average daily gain, best feed conversion and lowest mortality. Reg and Lindy Wiebe of Linden, Alberta; were overall aggregate winners achieving a top three rating in all three categories.
Olymel has 18 contract growers with 25 farms (18 farms in Alberta) across the three prairie provinces producing over 300,000 market hogs annually for Olymel’s Red Deer Slaughter plant. •
