The Bacon Industry.

Waikato Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1403, 24 January 1914, Page 5

The Bacon Industry.

A TARANAKI MAN’S OPINION

Four years back the outlook for pigs was remarkably good,” remarked a big buyer to an Eltham Argus reporter, and farmers were sending in pretty good stuff. The bacon factories paid pretty good prices then, and tanners generally were doing very well with this branch of farm work. Now, the last few years things have gone • back, and this is not satisfactory to the buvor or breeder. You smile, but I can prove it. Look here. The buyer gets his pigs nowadays just the same, but in lesser numbers, and a lot more pigs die in transit than previously and, don't forget, the quality has gone down. To get good results to stand foreign competition the curers need a good quality animal, and I’m sorry to say, this is hardly the case just now. The principal cause of this is through dairy factories swinging away from butter-making and going in for cheese. On the skimmilk a farmer could, with the use of a little corn, have his pigs ready for the factory in four or five months, and, by careful selection, get three litters in a twelve-month. Now, with whey it takes seven to eight months to bring the pig to a condition needed for curing, and the quality is sadly inferior. The extra eight to ten weeks that the farmer has to wait whilst his whey pigs are coming on moans keeping him waiting I'qv bis money, and also means that, in many instances, he only has one litter a year against throe when butter-making was more general.”