Red Deer Swine Tech
Planning has begun for the 2015 Red Deer Swine Technology Workshop. Mark your calendars for Wednesday October 21st in Red Deer at the Sheraton.
Some topics include: Antibiotic benchmark and resistance; Animal welfare audits; Understanding date; Foreign worker programs; Pain mitigation and the Code of Practice plus others.
Registration is $80 each, or get five registrations for the price of four.
For further information, sponsorship and registration contact Kate Cheney at 403.244.7821 or email
kate@conventionall.com  •

APC AGM & GT
Back by popular demand! The Alberta Pork Congress Annual General Meeting will once again be held in mid September in conjunction with the Annual Golf Tournament. Wednesday September 16th.
This exciting day will take place in Trochu, Alberta at the Trochu Golf & Country Club. See ad on page 40 for more details.
Breakfast will be served at 9am followed by the AGM at which time elections will take place for new members for the Board of Directors. Once the meeting has concluded this will be the first opportunity to book your booth space for the 2016 Alberta Pork Congress Tradeshow.
For those who choose to stay we’ll play a full round then be treated to a delicious pork dinner.  As always there will be prizes on hand for top honours!
Come for just the AGM or the entire day.
Kate Cheney at 403.244.7821 or email kate@conventionall.com will have more information.  •

Aherne Awards
Do you know of an innovator who should be recognized? Someone who has developed an original solution to answer a pork production challenge? Or found a creative use of a known technology?
The Banff Pork Seminar is proud to offer a chance for you to “strut your stuff” as a technology innovator and show the rest of us how to put it into practice!
The Dr. FX Aherne Prize for Innovative Pork Production recognizes innovators involved in the pork industry who are making a difference by applying new technologies or management techniques.
Innovators can win valuable prizes and free registration to the 2016 Banff Pork Seminar, January 12-14; you’ll be recognized by your peers and the pork industry and have a chance to present your solution at the 2016 Banff Pork Seminar.
Please nominate yourself, or apply on behalf of an innovator that deserves to be recognized. Help us to find these innovators and encourage them to apply for the Dr. FX Aherne Prize for Innovative Pork Production.
Specifically, we are looking for innovators who are capable of taking a new research concept, a technology, or even a management concept and apply it successfully in the production of pork. Innovations may be related to, but are not limited to, one of the following areas: Productivity, Profitability, Working Conditions, Animal Well Being, Reduced Environmental Impact, Pork Quality and Safety.
Anyone who has developed a solution to a pork production challenge may enter. Innovations must be relevant to North American pork production but do not necessarily have to be currently in use in Canada at the time of application.
Application and more information is available online at www.banffpork.ca. Applications must be received by October 27, 2015. Apply today!
Please contact Conference Coordinator Ashley Steeple at 780.492.3651 or
pork@ualberta.ca with questions.  •

SASK Pork Industry Symposium
Be sure to write down November 17th & 18th, that will be the 38th installment of the  Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium.
The symposium will be at the Saskatoon Inn. The two day symposium highlights are, day one get back to the basics of rasing pigs. Where as the second day focuses on swine health and biosecurity, economics plus state of the industry.
Check out ad on page 34 for more details.
For more information please contact Symposium co ordinator Kim Browne at 306.343.3506 or emailkbrowne@saskpork.com  •

Hog Days
Brandon will play host for Hog Days in December. The one day show will be held at the Keystone Centre in BrandonWednesday December 2nd from 10 am – 4:30 pm. Lunch tickets can be purchased on site.
Back is the ever popular Pork Quality Competition, the winners will be announced at 4:15 pm. For details on the carcass competition contact Ron Bazylo at 204.572.5282.
Also making a return is the Best Make & Bake 2015. For more information contact Helen Waldner at 204.272.5122
For information on the trade show please contact Everlito Mendoza, trade show co ordinator at 204.346.6080 or email
everlito.mendoza@gov.mb.ca.  •

Banff Pork Seminar
Planning is underway for the 2016 Banff Pork Seminar. Mark your calendars January 12-14, 2016.
This years seminar is being held at the Banff Springs Hotel. Reservations can be made at the Banff Springs Hotel through link on the banffpork.ca website. Rooms are reasonable, be where all the events will take place.  Online registration will be open soon for the seminar.
More details will be available in next edition Please contact Conference Coordinator Ashley Steeple at 780.492.3651 or pork@ualberta.ca with questions.  •

Cramer Livestock Expo
Mark your calendars for the sixth annual Cramer Livestock Nutrition Expo. The one day trade show will take placeThursday February 18th in Swift Current at Kinetic Park. Exhibitors packages will be available soon.
For details and information contact tradeshow co ordinator Kelly Turcotte at 306.737.6262 or email
kelly_turcotte@hotmail.com  •

Ritz, Fast Dismiss COOL Compromise
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Trade Minister Ed Fast have dismissed a proposal from a Michigan senator to convert Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) for meat into a voluntary measure.
Mandatory COOL has been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization. It has taken Canada seven years and millions of dollars to take the U.S. to the World Trade Organization courts.
Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Republican senator, is the senior member on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
In addition to voluntary COOL for beef and pork, she proposes maintaining mandatory COOL for sheep.
Canada’s sheep farmers and federal government did not include sheep in the appeals to the World Trade Organization.
Ritz and Fast issued a statement saying “the U.S. Senate must follow the lead of the House of Representatives and put forward legislation that repeals COOL once and for all.
“The only acceptable outcome remains for the United States to repeal COOL or face $3B in annual retaliation.
“Canada will continue to stand up for the rights of our cattle and hog producers to ensure this harm is ended and to restore the value of our highly integrated North American livestock market.”  •
— By Jim Romahn

CPC Welcomes  Trade Agreement
The Canadian Pork Council (CPC) is very pleased with the announcement recently by the Government of Canada of the completion of a trade liberalization deal between Canada and Ukraine.
“This will provide important additional export opportunities for the Canadian pork industry”, said Rick Bergmann, CPC Chair. “Given that we export well over two-thirds of our production, such new market possibilities help us to achieve the best overall return.”
“We look forward to the upcoming visit by Ukrainian government inspectors which should allow additional Canadian pork processing plants to become eligible to export to Ukraine”, added Mr. Bergmann, who farms in Steinbach, Manitoba. “The industry estimates that the duty-free access which this new agreement will provide for pork would be between 30 and 40 million dollars in value.”  •

Feds Back
Hog-hedging Project
The federal government is donating $169,530 for a Canadian Pork Council study into using hedging to reduce market-price risks for farmers.
“Under the project, consultations will occur with producers, financial institutions, packing plants, and organizations providing risk management services to producers for their assessment of this risk,” says a news release from the federal agriculture department.
The hog industry is the fourth largest agricultural industry in Canada with cash receipts of $3.9 billion in 2011.
“The hog industry typically experiences price volatility and producers manage through a limited selection of short-term risk management instruments offered by hog marketers, packing plants, or producer associations,” says the government.
The funding comes AgriRisk Initiatives (ARI) which supports the research and development as well as the implementation and administration of new risk management tools for use in the agriculture sector. ARI is a Growing Forward 2 Business Risk Management initiative.
“Our government is proud to support the hog industry’s efforts to analyze the potential of new instruments, like a hedging program, that would help protect producers against fluctuations in market prices,’ said MPP Bev Shipley of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex who is chair of the House of Commons agriculture committee.
“Investing in programs to reduce risk adds stability to the hog sector and will help boost competitiveness and profitability.”
Bill Wymenga, vice-chair of the Canadian Pork Council, said “hog producers face a combination of production, market and financial risks that can undermine the success of a farm without a range of risk management tools and strategies.
“This project will explore the feasibility of a program that can mitigate the risk of margin calls so that hedging becomes a useful and used business risk management tool.” •
— By Jim Romahn

ALMA’s Medium-Term Economic Outlook for Alberta’s Cattle and Hog Sectors
The Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency Ltd. commissioned Informa Economics Inc. (Informa) to conduct a medium-term economic outlook for Alberta’s cattle and hog sectors. Informa conducted the study in partnership with Serecon Inc. and Dr. Surendra Kulshreshtha. The study is designed to be a comprehensive analysis of market conditions, the profitability of Alberta’s cattle and hog farms, and the economic impact of the cattle and hog sectors on Alberta’s economy through 2025.
The Medium-Term Economic Outlook for Alberta’s Cattle and Hog Sectors was unveiled June 16 in Calgary at ALMA’s annual FutureFare, and forecasts moderate growth and profitability despite some significant hurdles.
The complete report is available on line on the ALMA website.  •

Pork Producers to Study Forward
Pricing Programs as a Business Risk
Management Tool
The Canadian Pork Council (CPC) welcomed the recent announcement by the Chair of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Member of Parliament for Lambton–Kent— Middlesex, Bev Shipley. Mr Shipley on behalf of the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announced funding for the Council’s project titled “Pork Industry Hedging Program Analysis” under the AgriRisk Initiatives – R&D stream. CPC’s Vice-Chair, Bill Wymenga joined Bev Shipley at Ontario Pork’s office in Guelph Ontario for the event.
“Hog producers face a combination of production, market and financial risks that can undermine the success of a farm without a range of risk management tools and strategies. This project will explore the feasibility of a program that can mitigate the risk of margin calls so that hedging becomes a useful and used business risk management tool,” stated CPC Vice-Chair Bill Wymenga.
While currently producers have access to hedging on the futures market, there are barriers to them doing so.
This project will gather statistics regarding current forward pricing program opportunities in various markets in Canada and the anticipated demand for a program. CPC in partnership with its provincial members, hope to gain a greater insight into why Canadian farmers utilize hedging and other risk management strategies to a lesser extent than their US counterparts. The project’s objective is develop a structure for a program to mitigate the risk of margin calls that would complement existing risk management tools.
“I am pleased to see this project moving forward given the cyclical nature of hog markets,” added CPC’s Chair Rick Bergmann. “Developing and having producers’ employ effective risk management has long been a topic of interest and priority for governments and the hog industry.”  •

Genesus Makes Agreement in China
Recently in Beijing China there was a announcement between Genesus and Cofco. Cofco is the largest agri-business in China, their pork division has almost 200 000 sows. This division is growing.
Genesus will be providing the swine genetics, ongoing technology and genetic production expertise, focused on supplying Cofco’s own farms and Genesus genetics to other Chinese swine producers.
The co operation agreement is the next step in a five year relationship of which Cofco has been using Geneses genetics.•

JBS Buys
Cargill Pork
JBS, already the largest meat packer in the Americas, has just gotten bigger.
JBS USA is buying Cargill’s pork business for $1.45 billion, they both said in a news release on Canada Day.
The deal includes two Midwest meat processing plants, one in Ottumwa, Iowa, and the other at Beardstown, Ill.
Both plants were acquired by Cargill in 1987, and in 2014 they processed a total of 9.3 million hogs.
Canada’s total hog population is about 12 million.
JBS also gets five feed mills, two of them in Missouri, and one each in Arkansas, Iowa and Texas, and four hog farms , two of them in Arkansas and one each in Oklahoma and Texas.
“This transaction will strengthen our position as a producer and supplier of all major animal proteins around the world, and provide increased opportunities for our producer partners and key customers,” said JBS chief operating officer Martin Dooley.
JBS first entered the U.S. pork market with the acquisition of Swift & Company in 2007 and has steadily improved performance ever since. The company has more than 6,000 team members and the total daily capacity to process more than 50,000 hogs at processing facilities in Marshalltown, Iowa; Worthington, Minn.; and Louisville, Ky.
It is the biggest beef packer in the U.S. and bought the XL Foods Inc. plant in Alberta after it was in trouble after it was involved in the biggest beef recall in Canadian history.
JBS is a Brazilian company. •
— By Jim Romahn

Barrows Outperform Boars in Denmark
Barrows made more profit than boars for Danish hog farmers, according to a study by researchers at Aarhus University.
The difference was that 21 per cent of the boars had to be culled because of boar taint.
The barrows turned a profit of $55 each, or $183 per pen space, but the boars only turned a profit of $28 and $94 per pen space.
The hogs were raised under organic protocols to 86 kilograms (190 pounds).
The results have been published in a report by the Danish Center for Food and Agriculture.  •
— By Jim Romahn

New Business Risk Management
Program Leaves
Nothing to Chance
Risk is a constant in the lives of pork producers, which makes risk management key to their survival.
This fall, Lethbridge College is offering an Agriculture Business Risk Management Program. If one of the following applies, the program may be for you:
• Agricultural operator who wants to better understand the fluidity of commodity pricing or the areas of financial risk and opportunity in your operation.
• Aspiring agricultural entrepreneur.
• Farm successor who wants to be ready for the challenge.
• Lender, salesperson or government worker needing an in-depth understanding of the financial risk inherent in agribusiness.
Developed in collaboration with industry experts, Agriculture Business Risk Management (AgBRM) is the practice of identifying, analyzing and managing potential risks and opportunities to achieve your business goals. This program is designed specifically for application in agricultural business with a strong focus on commodity and risk management essential to entrepreneurs. The scope of the program is limited to financial risk and areas associated with financial risk. Through this program, you will develop your knowledge and skills regarding agricultural markets, supply and demand and the national and international policies and events that influence those markets. Your personal communication and management skills will be developed to help you work effectively as a team member or business leader.
This program will benefit people already in the agriculture industry who wish to learn more about the business side of operations, as well as those seeking careers in Agribusiness, either as an employee, an advisor, or to open their own business. The program is open to anyone with an interest in Agribusiness. Although not essential, a grade 12 level of English and math will be of benefit for most courses. For the Statistics course, grade 12 math is essential for success. For further information and enrolment details, check out www.lethbridgecollege.ca/brm.  •

Sexing Technologies Acquires
Fast Genetics
Sexing Technologies, the global livestock reproductive services innovator, will acquire swine genetics leader Fast Genetics from Hylife with an anticipated closing date of July 21, 2015. The deal will allow the introduction of sex sorted sperm to the swine industry.
The acquisition will bring accelerated genetic improvement at Fast Genetics by skewing gender ratio in its nucleus farms and through leveraging high-index males to service more females via deep uterine and low-dose semen technology. The sex sorted sperm technology will also allow for significant output advantages throughout Fast Genetics’ multiplication. In the future, Fast Genetics’ customers will be able to purchase semen selected for male or female offspring, thereby having the ability to predetermine gender and tailor their product based on individual production economics and packer relationships. The acquisition of Fast Genetics diversifies Sexing Technologies’ business and expands the scope of its operations into the pig genetics business.
Fast Genetics will continue its dynamic and strategic partnership with Hylife, Canada’s leading pork producer, supplying maternal and terminal genetics for HyLife’s sow herds. HyLife will continue its multiplication commitment by providing Fast Genetics’ high-health gilts to the United States and Canada.
Customers will notice little change in Fast Genetics’ commitment and service. Shannon Meyers will continue his executive leadership as the company’s Chief Operating Officer.   •

$9.8 Million in New Funding to Improve Sustainability in Pork Production
Canadian pork is exported to more than 100 countries and it is consumed throughout the world more than any other source of animal protein. It is big business and managing disease in pork populations is one of the most costly and difficult challenges for pork producers.
Dr. Michael Dyck of the University of Alberta, Dr. John Harding of the University of Saskatchewan, and Dr. Bob Kemp of PigGen Canada Inc. are leading a team that has received almost $10 million in funding to develop genomics tools to help producers manage disease, reduce costs, and increase product quality.
The involvement of industry partners in this project means that within five years of its completion, the rate of genetic improvement and productivity will have an impact on pig production of more than $137 million, further improving the international competitiveness of the Canadian pork industry.  •

Trans-Pacific Talks Fail to Conclude Deal
Negotiators failed to strike a deal during intense negotiations, but the Trans-Pacific Partnership of 12 nations came close before heading home on the weekend.
They have not set a time or place to resume negotiations, but one participant told reporters they got to 98 per cent agreement.
Three key issues remain: access to dairy markets in Canada and Japan, auto trade with Japan and extending patent protection for biological pharmaceuticals to match the U.S. call for 12 years.
Australia has five years; some of the 12 nations have none.
On the auto-industry front, Canada and Mexico are concerned that they will lose out on sales to the United States if and when other nations gain equal access.
Canadian commentators are saying this leaves Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a tough spot. He has insisted several times that he wants a deal.
However, now that he has called an election, it’s going to be tough to negotiate during a campaign. It might also flush out the Liberal and New Democratic parties to determine whether they favour striking a TPP deal.
The talks have exposed the rift among Canadian farmers between those who hold dairy and poultry quotas and don’t want any competition from imports and almost all other farmers who would benefit from increased exports.
The supply-management marketing boards also spent all of their political capital, including electoral threats, during the final stages of the negotiations. It’s doubtful they have many good friends left within the Conservative Party leadership.  •
*** As of press time.
— By Jim Romahn