Governments need to reform the current suite of business risk management programs so that they meet the risks farmers are facing today.

Comment: Disease, drought, and war – a time of volatility

Despite these challenges, farmers remain surprisingly optimistic

Anyone who tells you that they know where commodity prices will be six months from now is either being misleading or fails to have a firm grip on reality. We are in a time where contradictory pressures on supply and demand are combined with political upheavals. As a result, farmers can expect an extended period

ASF outbreaks can cripple hog production and trade, as China’s experience proves. Canada is looking to offset the worst risk with a ‘peacetime’ plan.

Boxing out African swine fever

Pork sector weighing compartmentalization framework for African swine fever fight

The hog sector is considering a proposed ‘compartmentalization’ framework that will come into play should African swine fever arrive in Canada. Unlike zoning, in which authorities lay out control zones once disease is detected, the compartmentalization program would create rigorously monitored ASF-free ‘compartments’ to operate within the value chain as a matter of course —


VIDEO: Zones versus compartments in biosecurity

VIDEO: Zones versus compartments in biosecurity

Experts define zoning as ‘wartime’ disease management, while compartmentalization must take root in ‘peacetime,’ before disease is found

Zoning agreements and compartmentalization programs are similar and can be complementary — but they are not the same thing. Zoning refers to an area set up by authorities in the face of an active infection — colloquially described as “wartime” prevention. Zones are set out geographically, CPC veterinary counsellor Dr. Egan Brockhoff said. Within that

A group of wild boars running in Europe, where the pigs have caused challenges with disease spread. (iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan to license, limit wild boar farming

Moratorium placed on any new farms

Saskatchewan is tightening its rules on wild boar farming, including a moratorium on any new farms, in a renewed bid to keep the province’s feral pig population in check. The provincial ag ministry announced the moratorium Wednesday and said it’s “developing regulations for licensing existing commercial wild boar farms.” Regulations for wild boar and feral


Chinese workers in protective suits are seen at a checkpoint on a road leading to a village near a farm where African swine fever was detected, Nov. 23, 2018.

France, China agree regional approach to pig disease and trade

France has signed an agreement with main export customer China to ensure pork trade can continue even if an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) occurs, potentially providing a blueprint for European countries threatened by the pig disease. Blanket bans on meat trade by China and other importing countries due to outbreaks of ASF and

African swine fever outbreak spreading widely in Vietnam

An African swine fever outbreak is spreading widely in Vietnam and is hurting the local farming industry, forcing the culling of three times the number of hogs culled last year, the government said Nov. 25. “The outbreak is evolving in a complicated manner,” the government said in a statement. “It is threatening to spread on


Researcher Ryan Brook says the potential for interaction between wild and tame pigs exists.

The wild card on PED for Manitoba’s pork sector

The last thing the pork sector needs is possible contact between PED risk areas and wild pigs

[UPDATED: Dec. 8, 2021] Experts worry that Manitoba’s wild pig population and domestic hog production are on a collision course, something that can only be a bad thing when it comes to disease. Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, has spent the last 12 years trying to track Canada’s wild pig population

A group of wild boars running in Europe, where the pigs have caused challenges with disease spread. (iStock/Getty Images)

Ontario moves to phase out wild boar farming

Province, feds fund swine fever defense plans

Hoping to improve its odds against African swine fever ever getting a toehold in Canada’s hog herds, Ontario plans to regulate Eurasian wild boar as an invasive species starting in the new year. To that end, the province is making funding available to farmers who actively breed and raise wild boar to “shift to other


Higher pork production this year versus last year has eased China’s imports of its staple protein.

Comment: China lightens interest in pork imports but loads up on beef

Falling pork prices in China have quelled demand for imports

Reuters – U.S. pork trade with China made a big breakthrough two years ago as the Chinese hog herd was thinned by disease and political relations began to mend, though U.S. exports to the top pork consumer have not performed as well this year relative to those from other suppliers. China’s pork production is expected

Germany plans wild boar-free zone

Germany plans a wild boar-free zone along the Polish border to counter African swine fever (ASF) and has called on Poland to help more in countering the pig disease. Wild boar wandering into Germany from Poland spread ASF, which is harmless to humans but fatal for pigs and causes major loss of pork exports for