Ontario dairy farmers discuss supply management in Wisconsin

Mar 19, 2018

Ralph Dietrich and Murray Sherk also serve on the board of Dairy Farmers of Ontario

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

Two Ontario dairy producers travelled to Wisconsin last week to discuss the benefits of supply management with some of their American counterparts.

Ralph Dietrich, a producer from Mildmay, Ont. and chair of Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO), and Murray Sherk, a dairy farmer from Plattsville, Ont. and vice-chair of DFO, spoke at five Wisconsin Farmers Union information sessions throughout the state.

The information sessions come after some dairy processors have terminated individual contracts with producers.

However, a supply managed system means Canadian dairy farmers aren’t at risk of receiving similar notices.

Ralph Dietrich

“In Canada, a processor would never send letter cutting off production from individual farms because the processors are not negotiating individually with producers but rather buying from the (production) pool” of milk, Dietrich said during a presentation, according to Wisconsin State Farmer.

The U.S. dairy farmers were intrigued by Canada’s supply management system and farmers’ ability to receive fair pay for milk production.

“It is especially compelling to see what the Canadians have accomplished considering we have a complete failure of dairy policy in this country,” Darin Von Ruden, president of the Wisconsin Farmers Union, told Wisconsin State Farmer yesterday. “The biggest part of that failure is that we have no ability to control the supply of milk and match it to market needs.”

Representatives from the National Farmers Organization, Organic Valley and the Dairy Business Association (DBA) attended the meetings.

Murray Sherk

The DBA had concerns about supply management and Canadian farmers’ abilities to export milk.

But Sherk indicated the Canadian dairy industry is more interested in its domestic markets.

“Exports provide the lowest return, so we’re not interested in that” option, he said, according to Wisconsin State Farmer. “Yes, demand will grow as the world population grows but it will be in places like Africa and Asia and what will they be able to afford to pay?”

Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”