Keystone Agricultural Producers, Manitoba’s equivalent of
the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, is wants governments to offer hog
farmers $130 million worth of loans to tide them over to a return to a better
balance between feed costs and market prices.
They’re losing about $40 to $50 a head at current sky-high
feed costs and some of the nation’s biggest producers are already in bankruptcy
protection from their creditors.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made no promises, pointing
to his move to set up a Hog Industry Task Team to monitor the situation.
Keystone president Doug Chorney said the situation is so bad
that farmers are selling breeding stock because they can’t afford to feed them.
He said the bankruptcy of Puratone Corp., which has 40 hog
farms in Manitoba, is indicative of what is happening at other farms.
He said family farms will be bankrupted and hundreds of jobs
will be lost, including jobs in related industries, if help fails to come right
away.
