BACON TYPE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22948, 28 January 1938, Page 16

BACON TYPE

BY HitKKDER

USE OF OROSSBREDS

EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS

MORE CONSISTENT RESULTS

A new feature, which may have farreaching results, has been introduced for the national bacon pig championships to bo held at Whangarei next March. A special prize is ottered for the best bacon-type carcase of a purebred pedigree pig. In adopting this course, those responsible for the drawing up of the rules for the championship were no doubt influenced by the fact that a similar prize was offered at the last Koyal Show at l'almerston North. It is difficult to understand why such a course should have been adopted. L cannot help but think that the mere fact that such a class has been created, will bring most undesirable results. The' main object of all carease class championships should be to show the farmer the ideal type of carcase required by the " trade," so thatfrom a study of the breeding of the most successful exhibits be may know how to breed this ideal type. Definite Type The London market requires a very definite type of carcase and has gone to no little trouble to describe the type in detail. So long as the type is correct, the buyers at Smithfield are not interested in the breed or number of breeds represented. But there is one thing upon which our Smithfield advisers have made trenchant comment, and upon which leading breeders all over the world are practically unanimous. It is this: By far the most consistent method of producing first-grade bacon carcases is cross-breeding, and it is very much the exception rather than the rule that any one purebred produces an ideal carcase of bacon type. I should think that about ninety per cent of the bacon carcases produced in this country are the result of crossbreeding. and it is only by evolving a type of crossbred suitable to our New Zealand conditions —and once we decide upon it. to adhere to it —that we can hope to obtain the much desired uniformity which is a feature of our competitors' product.

Cross-breeding Essential All over New Zealand the farmers are beginning to realist l that crossbreeding is essential. There are one or two methods of cross-breeding which are producing splendid types of carcases, and what is more, are doing it consistently. This is the crux of the whole matter: Whatever system of breeding we adopt must he capable of producing the required type in almost every case and not in one or two isolated cases. There is not a breed or cross-breed of pig known which will not, by very careful selection, produce an ideal type of 'carcase. But this is not a bit of use to the average farmer. What ho wants to know is, what system of breeding will give him first-grade carcases all the time. If there was any known pure breed which would do this, every oacon producing country in the world would have concentrated upon it to the exclusion of all others, instead of universally adopting a system of crossbreeding. Best Method If the best method of producing a bacon pig is cross-breeding, why offer a prize for a purebred bacon type. I have no doubt whatever that one or two splendid carcases of purebred pigs will be exhibited. With so many thousands available there must surely be some of ideal type. But here is the danger: the mere fact of such a special class being created will lead a large number of farmers to believe that there is at least one of the pure breeds of pigs which is capable of consistently producing the ideal type of carcase. There is also the fact that very probablv one or two of such carcases will score well and this will add to the confusion. _ I have everv admiration for the splendid work 'which the Whangarei A. and P. Society has done in connection with their bacon class championships, and 1 feel sure that its only aim will be to advise and help the farmers on how to improve the type of bacon pig being produced. But the danger is that with a special class like this, a number of farmers will abandon the useful policy of cross-breeding to endeavour to breed the ideal trom either the Large White or the Tamworth breeds—and it is the considered opinion of the leading experts all over the world that this cannot be done consistently. Finally, there is this all-important fact: no pure breed has the constitution of the hardy crossbred, which introduces the important factor of economy of production and disease resistance.