PIG RECORDING

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3828, 2 November 1936, Page 5

PIG RECORDING

PROCEDURE UNDER NATIONAL SCHEME. APPEAL TO BREEDERS. Following on the recent announcement by the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. W. Lee Martin, concerning the Government’s national pig policy, which will ultimately include recording, education and investigation, the New Zealand Pig Breeders’ Association has now released details of the first step in this scheme. At present recording work only will be embarked on, and other phrases of the comprehensive plan of the Minister will be introduced into the industry later. An appeal is made in the circular to all members to take advantage of the scheme so as to “prove to the Minister of Agriculture that pig breeders and raisers welcome progressive moves in the interests of the industry.” An announcement is made that the council of the association intends to subsidise its members to some extent, but before the amount of the subsidy is determined, it is stated, it will be necessary to know how many sows are being recorded. Eighteen rules are laid down for the recording of sows. The breeder must offer for test only sows registered in the herd book and in farrow to a registered purebred boar of the same breed. All such sows on any property must be entered. The stock inspectors of the Department of Agriculture are to handle the scheme and nomination forms must be delivered to the nearest inspector. Nomination forms for sows expected to farrow from May to October inclusively must be delivered during April and for sows expected to farrow from November to April inclusive not later than October 31. Nonpnations must be delivered at least 14 days before the expected date of farrowing, but a late fee of Is, in addition to the testing fee of 5s for each sow, is payable for late entries, which may, however, be refused by the department. If not accompanied by the necessary fees nominations will not be accepted, but the fees for sows which fail to farrow, or which die, will be refunded. REQUIREMENTS OF BREEDER. , When a sow has farrowed the breeder must notify the stock inspector within one week of the farrow’ing date and he must provide reasonable facilities to the recording officer for the work of recording, including approved means of holding the pigs, that is, a safe holding pen in which the pigs are to be held ready for weighing, and secondly, assistance by the breeder in carrying out the field work, for example, the catching of the pigs. The breeder must employ a satisfactory system of identification by means of earmarking in conformity with the requirements of the Pig Breeders’ Association and the breeder is to be held solely responsible for this w’ork, which must be done to the satisfaction of the recording officer. The breeder is required to supply certified details of the sow, her feeding and the management of the litter. He must observe the rules of the Department of Agriculture and accept without reserve any decision of the department concerning the work of recording. Set out in one rule is a statement that the recording officer shall weigh and record the litters of all sows under test, first when 21 days old, or approximately 21 days old, and again when 56 days old. At the first weighing only the total weight of the litter is to be recorded, but at the second the weights of individual pigs are to be recorded. All weights so taken are to be adjusted when necessary by proportion to 21 days and 56 days respectively and are to take no account of the birthweight of the piglets. Before the first weighing each sow must be permanently identified with earmarks and before the second weighting each pig in the litter must be earmarked in the same way. REGISTRATION OF SOWS. A register is to be kept by the secretary of the Pig Breeders’ Association of all sows which have been submitted to test and the register is to contain all the details recorded by the department. It will be available for inspection “at a fee and in any manner to be agreed upon by the Pig Breeders’ Association and the department.” Authority is given the department to refuse to issue a statement of record in respect to any sow or sows placed under test, and the department’s decision in this is to be final and not subject to appeal. Moreover, it need not be accompanied by any statement of the reason governing the decision. The right is also reserved by the department to discontinue without a refund of the testing fee the testing of the sows of any breeder who does not conform fully with the rules. The acceptance of a nomination is not to bind the department tp Continue and complete the sow recording in the event of a change of ownership during the testing period and the interpretation by the department of the rules is to be final. Accompanying the circular are also notes on the technique of recording. Wleights are to be taken to the nearest pound and the breeder must provide suitable sacks for weighing. The exclusion of runts from the litter is allowed, provided each runt is declared before the first weighing and providing the existence of runts is noted on the record of the sow. The litter is to be fed within one hour befor weighing, the object of this being to avoid as far as possible variations in live weight due to a variation in stomach contents, investigations having shown such variations to amount co as much as 151 b. a pig in extreme instances. At the time of the first weighing the breeder is to make a declaration of all pigs born alive or dead. PROVISION OF RECORD SHEETS. On the farm the recording officer is to enter the recording data in duplicate in a field book supplied, one copy of which is to be retained in the field book. The sow record sheet is to be completed in quadruplicate in the office from the data supplied in the sow nomination form, and the recording officer’s field book. One copy of

the sow record sheet is to be kept by the recording officer and three are to be sent to head office, where one will be retained and two will then be forwarded to the secretary of the Pig Breeders’ Association, who will check them and return one to the departmental head office. One of the two copies at departmental headquarters will then be issued to the breeder if the record sheet is in order. When sow nomination forms are received a “report on accepted sow nomination” is to be completed in triplicate by the recording officer, one copy retained by him, one issued to the breeder and one forwarded to the head office of the department. Recording officers are to be supplied with accurate spring balances weighing up to 2001 b, and it will be part of the work of headquarters to notify the officers as soon as possible after notification of the acceptance of a nomination what sow record numbers have been allotted.