A director on the Manitoba Farm Mediation Board says maintaining communications within the family and with creditors is key to dealing with the economic crisis being experienced on Manitoba hog farms.
A combination of factors, ranging from low hog prices due to an over-supply, increased input costs particularly feed costs, the rising value of the Canadian dollar, U.S. Country of Origin Labelling and now H1N1 flu, has pushed many Canadian pork producers to the brink of bankruptcy.
Manitoba Farm Mediation Board director Gerry Friesen encourages producers facing difficulty to maintain communications particularly with secured creditors but also unsecured creditors and be aware of what’s going on on the farm to not be caught by surprises down the road.
It differs for every producer because every producer has different circumstances.
Certainly, when I deal with producers, I like to talk to them about anything from winning the lottery on one extreme to declaring bankruptcy on the other extreme and everything in between which can mean payment deferrals, it can mean right-sizing or down-sizing the farm, it may mean exiting the farm and how with each scenario they can best work their way out of the situation they’re in in a win win situation.
What’s key to all of that is communication, first of all at home but then also with their creditors.
Of course when people are under stress communication breaks down, relationships suffer and when relationships suffer things go to pieces really quickly.
Friesen says producers often have the misconception that signing up for mediation is the first step toward losing the farm but the sooner you apply for mediation, the more proactive you can be with creditors, the more options there will be available.
He says far too often the board starts dealing with farmers once all options have disappeared because they’ve waited too long.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
