The Saskatchewan Pork Development Board says reductions in Canadian pork production will have to matched in the United States to have any impact on North American live hog prices.
With the cost of pork production running at about 1.65 per kilogram and hog prices in the range of 1.15 to 1.20 per kilogram Saskatchewan’s pork producers are losing 45 to 50 dollars per pig at a time of year when they would normally expect to be making money.
Sask Pork chair Joe Kleinsasser says we obviously need less pork but producers are involved in the biggest game of chicken you’ve ever seen with everybody waiting for the other guy to blink.
Statistics indicate that the Canadian sow herd has declined six percent this year from last year and nearly 12 percent since 2007.
The United States breeding herd has declined by less than four percent so that’s a third of the percentage cut in Canada and yet the NPPC is blaming Canadian production for what ever’s not going good down there.
Obviously no matter how many pigs we cut down here really doesn’t mean anything when you consider that the state of Iowa produces more pigs than the entire country of Canada.
So the prodiction cuts have to come in the United States for it to mean anything.
I think what has happened up to this point is that increased production efficiency has pretty much negated the sow slaughter but we’re probably from here on in going to see that it’s picking up to the point where not even productiin efficiency gains can compensate for that and that’s is where we need to get to.
Unfortunatly nobody wants to cut down but right now there’s too many pigs in North America and that’s the long and the short of it.
Kleinsasser points out summer is usually the most profitable part of the year for pork producers but there’s just not a big enough demand for all of the pork that’s out there.
He says the scary part is there is generally a downward trend in prices heading into the fourth quarter.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
