With regard to the $25 million, that will drive innovation. I've had a number of meetings with the Canadian Meat Council. One of the major representatives on that council is a fellow named Brian Read, who was the managing director for Colbex-Levinoff, so he understands the situation there extremely well.
They are quite excited that this will drive innovation. We have moved everyone off this idea of a per-head payment basis. Certainly that would be countervailed within a heartbeat, and, of course, we want to drive innovation that has a chance to get back to the farm gate. That was the problem we saw back during the BSE crisis originally, when the moneys were sent out and got stuck somewhere away above the farm gate in that processing cycle. The processors themselves had access to some $130 million since then to help them build innovation. The money has disappeared; no innovation was put forward on SRMs.
The $25 million will drive innovation similar to what we're seeing in other jurisdictions around the world. The CFIA has been and visited, and has certified things like thermal hydrolysis, technology that allows us to put SRMs back into a fertilizer chain...without the restrictions that it cannot be used for livestock feed or grazing. Those types of things are out there and need to be put on the end of each plant. I know there is a big desire to do that.
There is never enough money when it comes to doing those types of things, but certainly we want to drive innovation with that $25 million, followed up with the $40 million to help do some of the bigger projects. The details will come out. We've already begun working on the details with industry, and they are quite accepting of what we're planning to do and how we are planning to do it.
When it comes to the hog situation, certainly we're as concerned as anyone. We want to see our programs work. We put money up on them. We've extended the time period; it's not up yet. We'll assess that when we get closer to it. We want to make sure that farmers actually apply. That's what we need to have, farmers who actually go in and apply.
I've talked to several in my riding who went to their historical banks, got rebuffed, phoned me, and asked what to do. I said, “Go to another bank. There are a number of them out there. Credit unions and Farm Credit have been doing great work when it comes to the hog loans. Don't stop at one.” As is the case with any other business, when I was in farming and running my general contracting business, my lumberyard, I didn't stop at one bank when it said no, and neither should farmers. As the businessmen of tomorrow, they need to keep banging on those doors. A lot of them are, and I give them credit for that.
Hog futures are looking good. July is showing a 14% rise over January in that first six-month cycle. We're seeing the numbers for fed hogs above the five-year average, which is a good thing. We're starting to get calls from hog producers in southwestern Ontario saying that those gosh-darn Americans are up here paying $50 for a weanling, and they can't compete. That's a good thing--not that they're having to compete, but that the price of weanlings is coming back up, because that's the basis. We are starting to see some turnaround. We need to make sure that our guys have an opportunity to buy in and build on that.
You talked about deadlines. The next one coming up on the advance payments is in September of next fall. Historically any comment made on extensions is generally made in the July-August period, and certainly we'll be looking at that situation again.