THE BACON INDUSTRY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2119, 26 May 1925, Page 3

THE BACON INDUSTRY.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —For many years past, the farmers of Ncav Zealand have patiently submitted to the low prices paid, the largo deductions made off the live weights ot porkers, baconers and choppers by the excessive greed of the pig buyers in -our local markets, that it seems to me, as a producer, that it is high time things were altered. 1 have recently managed to get hold of the scale of weights and deductions which I enclose herewith for your information. It makes interesting reading, but it makes one feel the absurdity of calmly submitting to such rap;ifcious depreciations without protest of a practical nature, more particularly as large shipments of frozen pigs are now being sent to England for the purpose of being rnadci nto baboon, and thus still further increasing the excessive profits of the buyers. From the scale before me as I write, 1 take the following Scale of Deductions for all Figs. 90 lbs to 159 live weight, less 33$ per cent. 100 lbs to 1.70 live weight, a graduated scale from 33), per cent to 27i per cent. 171 lbs and upwards, 27$ per cent. Porkers, 60 lbs to 119 lbs, nett weight. Prime baconers over 119 lbs to 150 lbs, nett weight.

The two last mentioned items are definitions of the nettt weights of porkers and baconers alter the buyers had made their deductions of 33i per cent in tlio case of porkers, and from 33i down to 27$ per cent in the case of baconers.

According to the buyers' scale, tho live weight of a 60lb porker would he 901 bs, and of a 1201 b baconer 1691b5. A J7ilh chopper’s live weight would be 236 lbs. This last season the st ale of weights has been slightly altered in the definitions of porker, ba.coner and chopper, in the latter case verv greatly to the buyer’s advantage because it'cuts lOlbs tuff the weight of baconers. This season the nett weight for porkers has been from 60 to 1091 bs, not lPJlbs as formerly; baoooners from 110 to 150 lbs, not 120 to lOOlbs as before. Choppers arc any pigs whose nett weight after 27$ per cent deduction is over loOlbs. Now let us see what this means. Taken in conjunction with the prices paid, it will be plainly seen that tho main, yes, the sole object of the buyers in this all-round lowering of weights has been >tu enable them to purchase any pig over loOlbs weight lor 2d per |b! If a pig were loOlbs nett weight they would have to pay 5d jx'r lb ior it, although lately they have, been offering ssd. This is doubtless in order to create a good impression for next season. .Nevertheless it is very hollow generosity and mere gallery play, because at this time of year no one has any fat pigs except for their own killing, and they know it!- Very lew farmers possess scales suitable tor weighing; live pigs, and are used to guessing the approximate weights, very often with disastrous results to themselves. For example, taking March, prices at 5d per lb for baconers, a farmer takes in his pig to the huvcrs’ scales on pig day. If it weighs 2071bs live weight, that gives him, according to scale, loOlbs nett, I'm- which ait 5d lie receives 63 2s 6d. Should however the pig scale 60S I Its live weight, the pig’s nett weight according to scale, would he 151 lbs, thus bringing the pig under the definition of “chopper,” and consequently worth only 2d per lb. For this pig tho farmer would only reu.ive 61 5s 2d, merely because it was HI) over the buyer’s self-made scale. This diflereiioc of 111) excess weight makes a ditference in cash to the farmer of .61 17s 4d.

Does any sane man imagine that this difference of lib is going to make any difference in tlie buyer’s plans lor the ultimate disposal of the pig? Certainly not, for by tlie time the pig has been trucked away it Avill have lost the lib excess Aveight and thus the buyer gets hold of bacon pigs at chop per prices—-actually Avithin a few hours the buyer makes 3d per lb profit on his deal because tho pig Avas lib overweight, whilst, the farmer lias bred and reared tlie pig up to the bacon stage, and only receives 2d per lb for all his trouble, and in addition loses £1 17s 4d which he should have had. It is iniquitous! Personally speaking, it 1 found any of my baconers weighing 11b too much I should he inclined to give them a run round for a bit to run it off, and then alive another attempt at the scales.

Are there no business men amongst us that avc alloAv this state of affairs to continue ? It is not at' the scales only that this extortion exists. The scales are only the first step. To proceed : For the time being, 1. Avill confine my self to tlie chopper* because he is the buyer’s best friend at 2d per lb. It is only from the very best finished baconers of 1501bs nett that it is possible to obtain sides of 40lbs In fact I doAibt it, though I am assured that it is possible. Yet the buyers admit that only 50 per cent of the baiconers coming into the local markets can be classed as “prime,” the question arises, Avhnt becomes of the other 50 per cent, and what becomes of the choppers. No one suspects the buyer of boiling down the chopper or throAVing it aAvay because ho only paid 2d pci’ 11) for it, so Avhat is done with it? 1 assert most positively, and every farmer knows it, these pigs are made into bacon and hams and sold at precisely the same rates as the smaller ones. 1 Avas in a store recently, and every side of bacon iu the shop was linmisf.aklably “chopper,” averaging Is 3d ]ier lb to the shop, ami 2d. to the unfortunate producer, and that miserable price only after 271, per cent had been koeked off for live Aveight. Here is another example for your farmer readers to study over. According to the scale before me, the top weight sliOAvn for a live chopper is 4001bs. The buyer’s nett Aveight at Avhicli they purchase is sliOAvn 290 lbs, a deduction of 110 lbs for head and offal. Assuming that the head ancl offal do represent 27$ per cent of a 4001 b pig, winch I say it does not, surely no farmer thinks .that these people throAv them away. We

all knoAV that a large and profitable business is done in these, and yet avc go on and on, blinding ourselves to the fact -tliat we are being ruthlessly robbed. ’ One cannot blame the buyers if we let them do( as they like.

It is we ourselves who are to blame. Perhaps the next generation of, farmers will awake to the fact tliait farming is a business as much as any other line of business, but with much greater (competition, ancl the farmer will have to waken to the fact that it lie. does not pursue business methods he had better get out of farming into navvying or something requiring no greater exercise of brain. Tho only remedy for the present unprofitable state of the pig market is a. co-oper-ative local factory at Pio Pio. It has been stated that we are too far from the railway as one objection, and as another, that once the factory started find offered, say, 6d, the buyers would offer 6-id, and that all tho farmers would let the buyers have their pigs for (the sake of the extra halfpenny. In answer to the first objection, 1 say if we can ship live pigs away at a. profit, we could get at least five times more weight away in bacon and hams in one lorry than we could live pigs, and get at least Is per lb instead of 5d and 2d. In regard to the second objection that the buyers at id better price than the local factory would gqt all the pigs, I say that every farmer shareholder of the local factory Avon Id know that the factory’s oiler was only in part payment, and that he had probably another 6d to come. He would also he able to place ids own value and interpretations on the buyer’s extra id. Why should he lake their id when he has another 6d to come from his oavh factory ?

1 am quite satisfied that the-district provides quite enough pigs to keep a fair sized factory going. It could easily be financed' by all the farmers ol tiie district co-operating. Our old acquaintance, the “joint and seA’eral guarantee,” hacked by the bank, would do it, but the success of the undertaking would have toi be ensured by making it compulsory for all members to supply their own factory and no one else. In this way only could it be a success.

if any of your readers care sufficiently iW their own interests in this direction and consider the matter as ait least worthy of discussion, I will gladly convene a meeting at an early date, when I hope something practical will he arrived at. Let all pig producers remember this f;*-t: That all deductions now made by buyers will he part and parcel of our uwn profits, and for the future will continue to be so.

1 enclose the present scale of weights and deductions. Comment is superfluous. 1 must apologise for the length of this letter, hut as I know your paper is keenly interested in any matter tending to the amelioration of farmers, I trust you may be able to find space for it.—l am, etc., W. K. CAY LEY-ALEX AND K It. Pio Pio, 21st May, 1925.