Over the past year the price of U.S. corn, the primary feed ingredient south of the border, has risen dramatically while the cost of Canadian feedgrains, including feed barley and feed wheat have also increased but not to the same extent.

Manitoba Pork Marketing Coop CEO Perry Mohr says the hope is that anticipated increased feedgrain production will help ease the upward pressure on feed costs.

Perry Mohr-Manitoba Pork Marketing Cooperative

I think producers in the United States have adjusted or are looking at seeding more corn in recognition of the opportunity to capitalize on that market and the fact that it's fairly lucrative. <

Hopefully we can see good growing conditions.

I know that they were behind at one point on seeding in the states.

I believe they've caught up and hopefully we can have good growing conditions and a good crop which will alleviate some of the pressure because certainly we've got enough challenges in the hog industry, in particular with all of the pressure from the Canadian dollar rising that we don't need to see high input prices as well.

Mohr notes over the past ten years, due to U.S. corn subsidies, the feed advantage had shifted to the U.S. with producers estimating a five to ten dollar advantage, from a feedgrains perspective, to finish a hog in the U.S. versus in Canada.

He says, if there is a positive, it's that the higher corn prices have swing the pendulum back toward the middle and possibly even into the western Canadian farmer's favor.