Posted on 10/15/2009, 7:42 am, by mySteinbach

The first ten million dollars under a program designed to assist hog producers in exiting the industry will be awarded at the end of this month.

The first round of tenders under a new program designed to pay hog producers to idle production facilities will be awarded October 28th.

The Hog Farm Transition Program is part of a pork industry restructuring plan offered by the federal government and is available to those in the business of hog production as of April 1, 2009.

Sask Pork industry and policy analysis manager Mark Ferguson says the lowest per animal unit bids will be accepted first with remaining bids accepted until funds for that round have been exhausted.

There’s 75 million dollars available under the program and the first bid that they do will consist of 10 million dollars.

Producers will have multiple opportunities to put a bid in.

After every round the Canadian Pork Council is intending to publish the results of the bids, some statistics to give producers bidding on subsequent rounds a better idea of the bids that were accepted, what was the high, what was the low and what was the average so we’re hoping that will help producers know what they could potentially bid.

You’ll have to get your bid in on paper to the program and you will have to get that in before October 28th for it to be considered for the first round.

And once you have it in they will compare them with the bids coming from other producers and then they’ll notify the producers if their bid has been accepted.

Ferguson notes participants must agree to set aside their entire hog production facilities for a minimum of three years.

Full information on the program including application forms is available at the Canadian Pork Council web site at cpc-ccp.com.

Source: Farmscape.Ca