Farmscape for December 19, 2005  (Episode 2000)

Sask Pork warns Canadian duties levied on  unprocessed grain corn imported from the US creates considerable uncertainty for the future of Canada's livestock industry.

Last week, in response to complaints from Canadian corn growers, the Canada Border Services Agency imposed provisional anti-dumping and countervailing duties totally $1.65 US on imported unprocessed American grain corn.

Sask Pork General Manager Neil Ketilson estimates the duty will add a third to the cost of feeding hogs in Eastern Canada, where corn is used more extensively, which will push up feed costs in Saskatchewan as well.

Clip-Neil Ketilson-Sask Pork 

You increase the price of feed in Saskatchewan and, because we're situated in a North American market, it will really make people think about sending more of the weanlings and isoweans down into the United States to be fed on the cheap US corn and then they will be processed there.

In turn we have to be very concerned about the ongoing supply of market animals and given the new announcements of the two packing plants in western Canada to look after the increased supply, I'm sure there will be many discussions in terms of what the supply is going to look like in a year or two and what the implications will be to the processing plants.

The other thing we need to think about is what is the US reaction going to be if that happens in any significant way.

Will there be another countervail or dumping action levied across to see if they can't reduce or eliminate the supply of live hogs into Canada?

There's a whole host of things that are up in the air and this certainly doesn't help.

It really adds to the uncertainty and makes it much much more difficult for the producers out there in terms of what decisions they're going to make in the long term.

Ketililson says, when you combine the current low hog prices with higher feed costs, it'll be difficult for hog producers to stay above the break even point.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council