APRIL 2019 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Poultry industry seeks to stop


infighting Pricing, quota contentious issues for hatching egg producers


by DAVID SCHMIDT


VANCOUVER – Relations within and between the chicken and hatching egg industry are a “mess,” BC Broiler Hatching Egg Commission chair Jim Collins told producers at their annual meeting in Vancouver, March 1. “The whole chicken


industry is fighting, fighting, fighting,” Collins told them, insisting, “we need to stop the dance.” Collins spoke from not only


a year’s experience as BCBHEC chair but also from his experience as executive director of the BC Farm Industry Review Board for almost two decades ending in mid-2016. He refused to pin the blame on any one individual or even any one group, saying, “We’re all at fault.” Since Collins became chair, the commission has been dealing with such “difficult, complex and intense” issues as pricing, spiking males, flock kill age and regulation of Asian breeders. He insisted the board is making progress, saying 2019 should see some “measurable results” on the spiking male initiative, a final initiative to address the regulation of Asian breeders and the growth management strategy.


He told producers the


growth management strategy should help growers better position their farms for a sustainable future. Pricing, however, remains a


largely unresolved issue. The BCBHEC and BC Chicken Marketing Board are working on a new linkage agreement while the BCBHEC is working with the BC Egg Hatchery Association on hatchery cost adjustments, breeder chick pricing, a vaccine index and new reporting software. BC Broiler Hatching Egg


Producers Association president Bryan Brandsma acknowledged that Collins “has made more of an effort at engagement” with producers but was not ready to endorse all the board’s actions and decisions. “There’s still a lot that


remains subjective and creates a muddy situation,” he said, adding producers were “frustrated” by the recent 56- week kill order which cuts


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back the most profitable weeks of a flock’s life. “We want the quota task


force to be revised and a sensible workable solution to be developed,” Brandsma said. The order was designed to match egg production with both the provincial allocation and local hatchery requirements, which is both the producers’ right and their responsibility, says Canadian Hatching Egg Producers chair Jack Greydanus. “Our goal is to achieve 100% of our allocation and we were successful in that in 2018,” Greydanus said. Improving hatching egg


quality is a second major goal and CHEP hopes to achieve that through its recent changes to the Canadian Hatching Egg Quality (CHEQ) program. “We only have one customer so we need to maintain a good relationship with hatcheries,” Greydanus stressed.


He said despite the dark cloud posed by recent trade agreements, the future still looks bright.


7


GOOD EGG! Mark Siemens, left, of Siemens Farms in Abbotsford, was named the 2018 Producer of the Year by the BC Egg Marketing Board. He received his award from BCEMB poultry management committee chair Matt Vane during the BC Poultry Conference in Vancouver. DAVID SCHMIDT PHOTO


“Chicken Farmers of


Canada are determined to increase consumption from 33 to 38 kg per capita in the next five years and we have to produce the eggs for that.” He also had some other good news for producers, telling them that because of the increased egg production, CHEP has decreased its national levy.


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