PIG-BREEDING CENTRE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28008, 30 June 1956, Page 7

PIG-BREEDING CENTRE

ESTABLISHMENT AT WAIKERIA

A national pig-breeding centre is to open on Walkeria prison farm near Te Awamutu. The president of the New Zealand Pig Producers’ Council, Mr D. J. Carter, told the annual meeting of the Canterbury District Pig Council recently that the capital investment in tne new station would be about £60.000. This cost, he said, was a good deal more than had first been anticipated, but the council had used in it various building designs and materials which might be of use to the industry as a whole. # Thirty sows would go to Waikeria to farrow on July 1, and 40 more would go there in September or October. From that time close to 50 sows would be farrowed four times a year. It was hoped to be able to turn out about 600 gilts annually.

The centre at Waikeria would be conducted as nearly as possible on business lines. The sows would be sold when the public wanted them most. It was his personal opinion that th? price would have to vary in accordance with the varying demand through the season. It was, however, not wished to make a big profit out of the station, as the money had been put into it for the benefit of the industry.

“Ils Money’s Worth” It was important, he said, that information on how to handle these sows should go out from the station to the industry, and in turn that reports on how they performed under farm conditions should go back to the station. Mr Carter said he felt that the council hadgot “its money’s worth” for its grants of £6OOO towards the reconstruction of piggeries at Massey Agricultural College. The council, he said, had three representatives on a six-man committee which directed research at the piggeries. A lecturer in pig husbandry had also been brought out to the college from England. So great had been the interest in pig husbandry and research at the college that the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research had granted £6OOO, with which an additional piggery would be built, for further study of the feeding of pigs.

Reporting the appointment of a veterinary specialist. Mr V. Buttenschon, Mr Carter said: “I can give you some hope that from the methods he is following he will be able to help yon with some of the troubles you have now.”

Mr Carter said that the Veterinary Services Council had also sent a man overseas to study diseases in pigs. A request had recently been received from him for samples from pigs suffering from virus pneumonia.