SCHEME OF TATTOOING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 38, 24 November 1938, Page 8

SCHEME OF TATTOOING.

BETTER BACONERS

i CARCASE PRODUCTION. Farmers anxious to ascertain the best biteed of pigs for bacon production will be l interested in a- scheme for tattooing which lias been approved by the executive of the National Pig Industry Council. and which is now ready to be put into operation all over New Zealand (states a circular issued by the Department of Agriculture). Farmers wishing to take advantage of this scheme an? asked to write to the secretary of the District Pig Council in their area, telling him the number of pigs that they wish to have tattooed and their approximate age. They are particularly requested not to delay writing until the day before selling their pigs, since the supervisor requires time to arrange his work. The earlier he' is informed the better.

No fee is charged for the service but farmers a#e expected to assist with the tattooing by having a pig-proof pen of yard wherein the pigs can be bold while the tattooing is done. With a suitable crush pen, a gate beside a wall, or in a drafting race, it takes only a few seconds to tattoo each pig. Only pigs intended for bacon are to be tattooed. The tattoo is struck just in front of the shoulder on either side of the line of the backbone, and ispiot visible until after the pigs are dressed. There is no obligation to sell the pigs in any way different from the way in which they are customarily sold and whether sold in the yard at per head or per pound the information about them will he returned to the farmer who owned them at the time they were tattooed. Briefly the scheme is as follows: Any pig intended for bacon, whatever its breed or kind, may be tattoed at any stage of its existence from three months old till within two or three days of slaughter.

When the pig is tattooed, details of t)ie number given, of age,, sex and breeding, are taken and sent to the Department of Agriculture. Nothing further happens till the pig is slaughtered. At the scales, the works grader takes a note of the tattoo number, the weight, backfat thickness, grade and date of slaughter, and sends these also to the Department of Agriculture. These details are transferred to the original docket, and a return is made out showing breed, grade, and rate of growth; this is returned to the owner. All Interested Co-operate. The freezing companies and other sl'au’ghterifig plants have undertaken tjie work of recording these pigs and it ifi due to their special interest and cooperation that this scheme can be put into operation. The supervisors of the district councils have agreed to do the tattooing, and provided they are given reasonable notice bv the owner as to when and where pigs are to be tattooed, it should not be difficult to have the majority of baconers tattooed. The Department of Agriculture assembles the information received from the district supervisors and the meat export slaughterhouses, and sends the returns hack to the farmer. This co-operation will be perfect if the fanner will give the supervisor reasonable notice of what pigs jie would like tattooed, so as to allow the supervisor time to arrange his work. The farmer is required to tell the supervisor the kind of sows and boar used to produce the pigs that are tattooed, along with the date on which the pigs were horn.

In return, the original owner receives a . report on each pig tattooed, showing its rate of growth, quality of carcase, iqasons for being degraded, rejected or condemned, where any of these occur. With this information lie may quickly get into the position of knowing which strains of pigs are worth discarding or expanding, arid of discovering what circumstances of management and feeding produce good or bad results. Such information may be very valuable to the individual farmer, but its value is trivial hv comparison with the information that may he obtained from a survey of large numbers of every particular breed strain and cross. For this reason farmers who see no personal advantage in tjie scheme are asked to avail themselves of it for the good of the industrv as a whole.

Survey of Pig Quality. If farmers give their full co-operation it .should he possible to have detailed information concerning as mapy as 80.001) pigs by the end’of the season. Included in this number there may be .1000 purebred pigs. Large White, Tnmwortlis, Berksliires or Devons, that show a grading return of 60 per cent of No. 1 primes, and a growth rate from birth to slaughter of Ljlb per day. 1 here may he 0000 of a second pure breed that shows a grading return of 80 per cent. No. 1 primes, but a growth rate of only 111) uer day. There may be 10,000 crossbreds from grade sows by purebred hoars of one breed, which differ from 1.1,000 crossbreds by boars of another breed in grading and growth rate to sucli an extent as to indicate the suitability of using a particular cross in preference to others. It may he found that c'l'itiiin breeds or crosses grade outstandingly when marketed at a certain weight.

Within n breed it may be fumul that ii certain strain of hoar throws pigs that are outstanding for growth rate or grading returns. The possibilities of making real progress in the discovery of. which pi;j;s are best are unlimited. It is only by getting information about large numbers under all possible conditions of feeding and management that it will be possible to arrive at reliable averages and Sound conclusions. Tn view of (be tact .tlint fbe trade l Inis given its utmost assistance, and that it has beep possible to fit this in with Departmental and other organised

oli'ort for tlic benefit of the industryami since the whole success of the scheme depends now only on the use that is made of it, a confident appeal is made to every farmer producing bacon pigs to make use of the service offered. It only requires a letter from the farmer to the District Pig Council in his area advising that he has a- certain number of pigs that he wishes to have tattooed.