The Saskatchewan government’s short-term cattle and hog loan programs will now offer borrowers an extra one-year optional extension on their principal payments.
The programs, first announced in December 2007, had budgeted $90 million for short-term, low-interest loans with the intent of helping eligible Saskatchewan cattle and hog producers facing “difficult market conditions,” the province said.
Borrowers under the program were previously given the option in November 2008 to defer their 2009 principal payment to 2010, to help them deal with “ongoing challenges” in the cattle and hog sectors.
Now, under the optional extension announced Wednesday, principal payments will thus begin in 2011 for producers who deferred their principal payments both last year and this year.
Read Also
U.S. livestock: Cattle futures down, hogs rise
Live and feeder cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange showed small losses on Thursday, while lean hog futures made…
Producers are required to pay any accrued interest and sign a letter acknowledging the amendment to their loan agreement, the province said.
“Saskatchewan cattle and hog producers continue to battle one challenge after another,” provincial Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud said in a release. “Giving these producers some extra time to pay back these loans should help relieve some of the pressure they are currently facing.”
The deadline for loan applications under the program was March 31, 2008, for loans of $75 per head for calves, feeders and bred heifers based on inventory at Aug. 1, 2007.
Producers of market hogs were eligible for loans based on hogs marketed in any week between Oct. 1, 2007 and May 2, 2008, based on 90 per cent of the difference between $140 per hundred kilograms (ckg) and the Saskatchewan weekly pooled price for market hogs.
Producers of weanling hogs were eligible for loans of $10 per head for weanlings sold in any week between Oct. 1, 2007 and May 2, 2008, when the price for market hogs was less than $140 per ckg.
