FALL IN NUMBERS OF PIGS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25080, 11 January 1947, Page 5

FALL IN NUMBERS OF PIGS

DOMINION FIGURES FOR EIGHT YEARS The continued fall in New Zealand’s pig population is the subject of comment in a bulletin of agricultural and pastoral statistics released this week. “The continued fall is striking, since • New Zealand even before the war oc- . cupied a very low position in relation i to the dairying countries in respect of I ratio of pigs to dairy cows,” the bulleI tin states. “New Zealand’s ratio of | pigs to dairy cows is at present 33 pigs to 100 dairy cows. The latest information available shows 195 pigs to 100 dairy cows in the United States and in Denmark (pre-war) 166. In the United Kingdom the pre-war average was 155 pigs to 100 dairy cows, but as a direct consequence of shortages of feeding stuffs, the pig population of the United Kingdom has been severely curtailed. However, the ratio of pigs to 100 dairy cows in that country in June, 1946, was 67 to 100, which is more than double the ratio in New Zealand in the same year.’’ The statistics give the pig population for the eight years (1939 to 1946

in that order) a5: —676,000; 706,000; 762,(00; 681 000; 605,000; 573,000; 594,000; 549.000. In the same period dairy cows haOe decreas?d from 1,724,000 in 1939 to 1,662,000 in 1046 (with a peak of 1,759,000 in 1941), and horses from 262,000 to 216,000. Cattle have increased from 4,528,000 to 4.667.000. Recent sheep figures are not available, but the increase from 1939 to 1945 was from 31,897,000 to 33,975,000 (lambs included).