Cattle and pork producers get break on loans

People in the beef and pork industry in Canada will have more time to repay loans they received under a federal agriculture program, officials say.

Producers who received cash in the program were due to start repayments in the fall.

Two new dates, one for cattle producers and another for pork producers, were announced Friday by federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in Saskatoon.

• Cattle producers will have until March 31, 2012 to repay their loans. They must begin to make payments on the loans by the end of May, 2011.
• Pork producers will have until March 31, 2013 to repay their loans. They must begin to make payments by the end of March, 2011.

Officials and industry leaders said Friday that extending the deadlines should ease some of the financial pressures producers are facing.

"This, I think, allows people the kind of breathing room to be able to get some of the higher returns on this marketplace," Brad Wildeman, a spokesman for the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, said Friday. "Then go in sort of an orderly way to repay these loans and build towards the future."

The maximum advance under the program was $400,000.

According to a spokesman for the federal agriculture department, there are 2,485 cattle producers taking part in the program. They have received $196 million in loans.

There are also 1,621 hog producers in the program. They owe $262 million.