Pig farmers count cost of meat strike

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 24

Pig farmers count cost of meat strike

By

DAVID LUCAS

Canterbury pig fanners are still counting the costs of the strike by meat industry workers which closed processing plants for about two months. Although killing resumed two weeks ago, pig farmers say they are still being penalised financially by the strike and it will be another fortnight at least before the backlog of pigs ready for slaughter is cleared. It could take another four to five months before the pig industry has recovered from the flow-on effects. A Dunsandel pig fanner, Mr Ray Seebeck, estimates the strike has cost him several thousand dollars in extra feed, cartage and downgraded carcases. Because the strike

resulted from disputes between export processing companies and meat workers, pig farmers say they were not even involved in the affair, yet they were directly affected financially. The longer the strikes went, the more serious were the effects on individual pig farmers. A shortage of killing facilities forced fanners to retain prime pigs which led to overcrowding in pig pens. Accommodation was stretched to the limit on the Seebeck farm where indoor weaner pens built to handle 18 pigs had to accommodate up to 58. This week the pens still contained up to 36 weaners and light porkers were still running in lots

of 40 instead of 20. The overcrowding led to severe stress problems among pigs and their general health deteriorated, said Mr Seebeck. Pigs had to be happy to do well, but when they had to fight to find enough room to lie down, or to get to the food trough, their health suffered. Pig fanners had been powerless during the dispute and could only keep on feeding their pigs and hope for the strike to finish. Unlike sheep and cattle, pigs could not be left to graze in a paddock because after being raised in a warm, enclosed environment, they would be susceptible to pneumonia if turned outside.

Abattoirs not involved in the dispute provided a small outlet for prime stock, although transport charges cut into the profit margins, said Mr Seebeck. Associated Meat Buyers did a tremendous job arranging killing space at places such as Timaru, Wellington and even Auckland, and they subsidised transport costs. But a bigger cost to pigfarmers came from the downgrading of pigs which had grown too big. Mr Seebeck estimates he has already lost $2OOO because prime pigs had been relegated to manufacturing grades. To be graded prime, the carcase weight of boars must not exceed 72kg. For pigs over the limit, farmers lost $3O to $4O. Added to the reduced price per kilogram for

downgraded pigs, was the extra feed these pigs consumed while awaiting slaughter. Farmers could see their pigs getting too big, but could do nothing to prevent it Mr Bruce Miller, national president of the New Zealand Pig Breeders’ Association, believes a 200-sow unit could lose up to $lO,OOO because of the strike. Added to this cost was the stress experienced by pig farmers themselves who watched the health of their stock deteriorate through no fault of their own, said Mr Miller. Modern pig-keeping was based on the orderly flow of pigs from birth to slaughter, said Mr Miller. If the marketing of pigs was disrupted there would be a massive oversupply as the flow-on nature of the industry continued.

The profitability of pig farming had declined for three years and the last two years had been catastrophic for pig fanners, said Mr Miller. The recent strike had compounded the financial problems of farmers and would probably force some farmers out of the industry. Ray and Sally Seebeck have farmed their 36ha block for seven years, having converted it from a poultry unit to a pig farm. They dispensed with a 1000 bird entitlement five years ago and committed themselves to pigs. They run 200 sows and have 1800 other pigs at various stages of fattening. The Seebeck’s endeavour to carry through all their pigs to baconers of 80kg to 85kg liveweight. This generally takes 22 to 23 weeks. Ray believes that once the weaners are in the fattening sheds most of the hard work is done and it is more economical to grow pigs on to baconers rather than sell at porker weights. The fact that bacon could be stored was another advantage in producing heavy pigs, al-

though the present high interest rates were preventing processing companies from storing pigmeat The bacon schedule had dropped 20c per kilogram since Christmas and it would probably stay about that level until pig numbers dropped, he said. The current schedule price of about 207 c was even lower tljan in 1981, yet the cost of feed, power and labour had increased dramatically. Pig farmers had survived only because they had become more efficient and had streamlined their operations, he said. In spite of the success of advertising campaigns promoting pigmeats, such as Trim Pork, Mr Seebeck feels advertising has had some drawbacks. Advertising had helped maintain prices to producers, but it had also helped keep inefficient farmers in business, he said. “It has simply postponed the day when the industry has to cut back on production. “It would have been better not to have as much advertising and let the inefficient producers drop out of the industry,” he said.