Input is being sought for a new national strategy tightening the binds between provincial pork boards and the Canadian Pork Council.
Stephen Heckbert, now in his second year as CPC’s executive director, took an opportunity to meet with producers at Alberta Pork semi-annual meetings held across the province during the second week in March.
Speaking with Prairie Hog Country afterwards, Heckbert said the most important aspect of his visit was to share information and gather input surrounding a new national strategy now under development at CPC.
The national organization is spearheading a broad base of discussion over the next 12 months to talk about what people want to see from their sector.
“That will help inform us as we work on sustainability, as we work on on-farm; it will inform the sector as it talks to government about innovation and some improvements to the overall sector that we want to do and, hopefully, it’ll help us have discussions about ASF (African Swine Fever) planning and preparation as well,” said Heckbert.
Finding common ground plays a crucial role in the process, he said.
“It’s challenging sometimes to get alignment across a sector like ours, but important for us to make the effort and important for us to have the conversations because we . . . don’t want the associations at the provincial or federal level working in silos.”
Having everyone on the boat rowing in the same direction will be especially important in CPC’s efforts to lobby the federal government on trade, disease prevention and other issues affecting the industry, he said.
“Everything we work on touches every other aspect of the sector, right? So, the more we work on on-farm programs, the more that has an implication for us in terms of ASF planning, the more it has an implication for us in terms of innovating at the farms. All these things tie together, and we want to make sure we talk to producers so we will be better informed to talk to government about what’s our thinking across the country as we work on this.”
Alongside its conversations with government, CPC has been talking with Canadian retailers about how Canadian pork is marketed to Canadians.
“We talked to a major Canadian retailer who wants to make sure that we’re meeting our Canadian Pork Excellence standards. My answer to the retailers is: ‘Look, you really should only be selling pork in Canada that meets Canadian standards.’
“For sure, all our pork that goes to Japan meets CPE standards. So, in fact, Japanese customers are frankly getting the best of Canada and Canadians may not always be getting the best of Canada.”
Heckbert stated that CPC wants to help Canadian producers do a better job of telling their story in Canada, recognizing pork as an affordable and healthy source of protein.
“This isn’t a one-year solution. It’s not going to be a quick advertising campaign. It’s going to be being consistent, having a consistent story, making sure we repeat it as much as we possibly can and making sure that we’re ready to take the time and the financial resources to get out there and tell it.”
Outside of Canada, Heckbert argues for a change in philosophy around the way Canada markets its pork.
“If we want to be treated like a commodity, then we’re going to be putting ourselves in this boom-bust cycle all the time. But if we can understand the shift to a relationship model, I think that will help us even out the booms and it will also even out the busts.
“One of the things that I think is helping producers is that more and more countries are looking at Canada and saying, ‘You produce high quality pork, it’s pork we can rely on. We want to build relationships with you so that we can know that you’ll be able to provide us with pork; not just this quarter, but on an ongoing basis.”
Heckbert told producers at the Alberta Pork meetings that there are opportunities ahead.
“We have an enormous opportunity to be the world’s breadbasket and the world’s supplier of (protein). There’s opportunities there for us. Pork is obviously the most affordable protein,” he said.

In their addresses to the meetings, held in Grande Prairie, Red Deer, Drumheller and Lethbridge, Alberta Pork Chair Stan Vanessen and Executive Director Darcy Fitzgerald reviewed trends and initiatives affecting Alberta Producers.
Van Essen commented on the fast rise in cash futures, but cautioned producers to prepare for another dry summer, which could include water shortages, feed shortages and wildfires. He also said fire insurance is becoming much more costly related to the incidence of barn fires, and may not be available at all from some underwriters.
At the time of his presentations, most of Alberta had been experiencing a warm, dry winter. Daytime highs in many areas had reached double digits and a light snow cover had disappeared. That was followed by a week of cooler weather and heavy snows across the southern areas of the province, but how much impact that will have on moisture levels was unknown late in March.

If the dry trend continues, water shortages will trigger emergency measures that will affect the availability of water for livestock and crop producers, said Vanessen.
“Running out of water is probably the worst thing that can happen to a farmer. You can haul feed, but you can’t haul water. You have got to pump it and it’s time consuming; and I mean, where is it?” he said.
“Government has worked with producers in the past when they ran into some issues and they would be willing to do so in the future, but it’s best to be proactive and make sure that we have something in place so that you’re not panicking when the pigs are screaming and you’re screaming and it’s just an ugly situation.”
Fitzgerald said the province is now in a Stage 4 water emergency, where permit holders are asked to take conservation measures and to share their water supply if possible. If a Stage 5 emergency is declared, mandatory restrictions would be implemented and access to some water sources would be closed.
“As Stan mentioned, we’re at Stage 4. If we hit Stage 5, the government tells you what to do,” said Fitzgerald.
Alberta Pork listed additional highlights from the meeting in its weekly report to producers:
*Alberta Pork and the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) have formed a committee to review AgriStability and other business risk management programs.
*The Alberta Pork Producers’ Commission Regulation now requires processors to provide Alberta Pork with settlement data for all Alberta pigs. The next step is to begin collecting, aggregating and reporting on this information.
*Alberta Pork is working with Commodity Professionals Inc. and 33 producers in southern Alberta to pilot new cost-of-production measurement software.
*Alberta Pork continues to work with industry partners and government on prevention and preparedness plans for a potential ASF outbreak, including the supports for producers and eradication of feral pigs.
*Alberta Pork is working with the CPC and other provincial pork producer organizations on political advocacy initiatives. The next mission to Parliament Hill in Ottawa will take place in April.
*PigSAFE and PigCARE are now officially implemented across Canada. All of Alberta’s commercial producers are trained on the programs, with 98 per cent fully certified. There are currently 170 hog operations on 278 sites within the province.
*Electronic swine manifest (e-manifest) training continues for producers shipping to Olymel in Red Deer and Maple Leaf in Lethbridge.
*Alberta Pork, Sask Pork, Manitoba Pork Council and Ontario Pork have been collaborating to recruit shared economics expertise for producers.
*Alberta Pork, Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council are collaborating on promotional campaigns to support pork consumption.
Vanessen said that, while there is reason for optimism, producers should reassess their risk management programs and take measures to protect themselves and their operations.
“Hope is not a good business plan, right? We should just do some risk management, do what you can do.” •
— By Brenda Kossowan