DECREASE OF PIGS IN N.Z.

Grey River Argus, 13 September 1946, Page 5

DECREASE OF PIGS IN N.Z.

DESPITE HIGH PRICES /: Drive for More Production P.A. WELLINGTON, Sept.- 12. . Slaughtering returns showed that production of pigmeats had fallen considerably over the past four years,; said the Superintendent- of the PigIndustry of the Department of Agri-, culture, Mr. H. M. Peirson. No effort had been spared to encourage■ production, he-said. The prices for ’ pigs were never - better than they now; are. Nevertheless, pig killings had fallen off each year since ,1941, and they were continuing to do so. The; total killings in all of the export and rural slaughterhouses, and abattoirs, _ and on farms in 1945 showed a re- . duction of 418,000 compared with the 1941 killings. “This reduction in the numbers does not, of course, tell; the whole story,” said Mr. Peirson. • “The increase in the number of. heavyweight pigs for bacon helped; to maintain the pigmeats on the ; - tonnage basis, so that while the;, numbers of pigs decreased alarming-; ly, the weight of the pig meats, whichreached fifty two thousand tons in 1941, fell only' to forty two thousandtons in 1945.” There is little doubt that some of the falling off in pro-. duction was because of tire reduc-; tion in number 1 of the cows milked. - To achieve the 1946-47 programme of increased production of pig meat, the’,, killings would have to increase by; two hundred thousand pigs.. To assict in the drive for more pig meats,. the Government had decided to con-; tinue the crop subsidy scheme, andto consider an increase in the price schedule for pigs,