THE EGG SHORTAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27078, 12 May 1949, Page 8

THE EGG SHORTAGE

Sir,—ln your article 'in Saturday’s issue giving the alleged causes of the present egg shortage the writer has entirely missed the nub of the matter. He does not, mention the wheat shortage, and the exorbitant price the small producer has to;pay for the grain.. Yet a pouitryman knows that a flock of decently-bred hens can be kept, m laying condition by a diet -of wheat alone, and that cannot be said for mash or any other food. The Government, or the Wheat Committee, has controlled the price of milling wheat at as a bushel, but there is no control of fowl wheat, which now sells at 10s and upwards a bushel. Why this discrimination against the poultrykeeper? Ts.it because the Minister responsible represents a wheatgrowing district, • and ' the wheatgrower wants to g-t all he can for his second and third-class grain while wailing through his Farmers’ Union about the inadequacy of the price fixed for milling grain. It is well known, though that a large part of the wheat crop, especially In Otago, is sold as fowl wheat at a much higher price than can be got for milling wheat. It is a sly business and a, gross anomaly from which the poultrykeeper comes out a bad loser—and, of course, the public. I believe that by joining ah egg circle a pouitryman can get his wheat at a lower rate than that prevailing in the open market. That course is not .possible for the small holder living in the country, far removed from egg circles, if is time this question of the price of wheat for poultrykeeping was brought out into the open, and a reasonable compromise arrived at. I do not thing the poultryman would complain if. the price of fowl wheat were fixed at the milling rate, viz., 8s a bushel, and made available freely to the small poultrykeeper. He would not then have ‘to worry about fancy mashes (including road metal), meat meal, and other city ideas, and I venture there would be an immediate revival in the production of winter eggs.—l am. etc., Balclutha. Small Holder.