Reading Time: 4 minutes The beef sector is regaining some optimism, but pork producers are still fighting to stay afloat. “Our producers are losing a lot of money,” said Darcy Fitzgerald, executive director of Alberta Pork. “It truly is, right now, related to COVID-19. The price that we’re seeing that they’re being paid, is related to what is going […] Read more
Hog sector is grim, cattle is recovering
Cattle backlog is being cleared but hog producers are losing upwards of $50 on every pig they sell
Pork is profitable, but pigs are a money-loser in Alberta
Summer is when hog producers make their money — but this year, they’re losing big time, say officials
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s an everyday act — but one that shows why hog producers in this province are getting near the end of their rope. An Alberta producer recently delivered 200 pigs to a packing plant and got paid $4,000 less than it cost to raise those animals. And then he had to disinfect his truck at […] Read more
Pork groups seek a new deal
Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta Pork and its sister organization in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and B.C. are asking Maple Leaf Foods, Olymel and Donald’s Fine Foods to work with them on a new “value-sharing model” that boosts prices for producers. In a letter to the three large pork buyers, the farm groups say “the normal economic principles of supply and […] Read more
Producers need $35 a hog immediately, says Alberta Pork
Sector facing losses of $675 million and ‘desperately needs a lifeline’ in the face of plunging prices
Reading Time: 3 minutes Alberta’s pork producers need government aid of $35 a head just to keep their heads above water in the short term, say industry officials. “The hog industry desperately needs a lifeline,” said Alberta Pork chair Brent Moen. “Our producers are drowning in a sea of red ink, and we have our federal and provincial bureaucrats […] Read more
Alberta Pork celebrates 50 years — and looks back at many, many changes
It’s almost easier to ask what hasn’t changed in the pork sector in the last half-century
Reading Time: 4 minutes The changes just keep on coming as the organization representing Alberta’s pork producers marks its 50th birthday. The industry has been transformed again and again since Alberta Pork was formed in 1969, said executive director Darcy Fitzgerald. The top one is the number of producers. “We used to have a lot of farms with few […] Read more
Millennial couple takes outdoor hog farming to the next level
Reading Time: 5 minutes When Chris Fasoli exited his office job in 2015, he knew he wanted to do something different. After some soul-searching, he and wife Jessica decided they wanted to farm. The Fasoli family operation, run by Chris’s brother, had some grazing land available after selling off its cattle a couple of years earlier. But the couple […] Read more
The mystery deepens as third case of PED found in Alberta
It’s not known how the devastating virus arrived or how it showed up in one isolated room on a second farm
Reading Time: 5 minutes Alberta hog producers are no closer to answers about how a devastating virus found its way into the province after a third case of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) was confirmed at the start of March. “There are several possibilities about how it’s spreading that involve transportation, and we’re still looking into that at this […] Read more
One Alberta PED case deemed ‘false positive’
The third of four reported on-farm outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea in Alberta so far this year can now be marked as a negative. The provincial government and hog producer agency Alberta Pork on Monday announced the first of two cases reported Friday was in fact a “false positive.” Specifically, Alberta Pork said Monday, the […] Read more
Pigs could soon move off Alberta’s PED-infected farm
The first, and so far only, Alberta hog farm to catch porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) could see animal shipments restart on a supervised basis “in the coming week.” The provincial ag ministry on Thursday said its investigation of the PED case, discovered Jan. 3 at a 400-head farrow-to finish operation, “continues to suggest that the […] Read more
PED reaches Alberta — first case of deadly virus confirmed in province
Hog producers warned by pork officials it’s ‘especially critical’ to step up their biosecurity efforts
Reading Time: 3 minutes After years of successfully keeping the deadly PED virus at bay, porcine epidemic diarrhea has been found in Alberta. “The disease was found on Thursday (Jan. 3),” said Javier Bahamon, quality assurance and production manager for Alberta Pork. “It was reported by a private veterinarian to chief provincial offices at Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. Since […] Read more
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