MONEY IN PIG-RAISING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 150, 27 June 1931, Page 8 (Supplement)

MONEY IN PIG-RAISING

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROFIT. I SUPPLEMENTING FARM INCOME. • “I fail to understand why the farm era of New Zealand do not go in more extensively for the breeding of quality pigs,” said Mr. Eliot Davis in an inter . view at Auckland last week. Mr. Davis said he had read the report of the South ( Island Dairy Association, that the far i niers of the Dominion were in “a hope ( less position,” and would have to seek elsewhere for a livelihood unless costs were brought down. “The report states ■ that the gross annual return which farmers m tho Dominion were now get ting was only £7 10s per cow,” Mr. Davis remarked. “I have not the least ( hesitation in saying that tho poorest kind of sow in this country will return more than this amount. I started three years ago with three sows and a boar. and a few months later, purchased hall-a-dozen more sows. My only purchases since, have been two boars, and my . gross returns have averaged over £lOOl- - annum. I have sold off my farm at least 750 pigs from these original sows, ; and have 300 now on the place.” ( Care of the Stock. “This has been brought about simply j by giving the animals the same care and attention which is bestowed on pedigree , dairy stock. I do not say for a minute that these results would have been ; obtained without care and attention. 1 ( have not one breeding sow on my place that is returning me less than £25 per annum. Indeed, two or three of them, ( give a gross return of £75 a year each. “How can one compare a cow which ] gives its milk and a calf once a year, or a ewe with its wool and lamb, with a well-kept sow that will produce 20 | marketable pigs a year at the least. One . has only to take the price of pork in ( England compared to the price of lamb, and any schoolboy will work out the , extraordinary difference in favour of the pig. If the statement of tho South Island Dairy Association is correct, then ( I go so far as to say that it would pay farmers to keep cows, if only for the purpose of feeding their pigs. “The Unemployment Board’s scheme of providing labour for farmers to repair fences and gates would be much better employed in building piggeries. ( The farmer should then breed such stock as will meet the approval of the London market. He would find, in a very short space of time, what a golden opportunity he had been missing. Comparison With Denmark. “It is most significant that Denmark, our biggest competitor in dairy pro ducts, has 25 pigs to every cow milked, whereas, wo in New Zealand have four pigs to every cow milked. Worse than that, the Danish pigs are all a quality article, specially brought down by scientific breeding to meet the demands of the English market, whereas not 20 per cent, of the pigs in New Zealand would compare in quality with what the Danes are shipping to England. “I am confident that if the quality of our article is improved, and fanners take to pig breeding in the same way as the Danes have done, wo would feel an immediate benefit, and farmers would be independent of the price of butter. I assert positively, from my own experi ence, that the position is not hopeless far from it. Any farmer, who has had no success with pig breeding I do not mean pig fattening—has only himself to blame for his lack of attention to his herd, and fur not breeding the right quality. Tho pig industry in New Zealand to-day is where the butter industry was before grading came in. XV e have had a severe lesson with our cheese, and it is up to use to realise that if we want to compete with world markets we must provide an article equal in every respect to that of our competitors. We are equally placed with the Danes, and our pork can be landed in England to compete with theirs in the same way as our butter. Consumption in Britain. “It may not bo generally known that the consumption of pig products in Eng land runs into the huge amount of £100,000,000 per annum. Of this sum, £56,000,000 worth is imported, of which Denmark contributes just under 50 per cent., whilst our supplies are less than one per cent. England herself is producing £45,000,000 per annum, and I look forward to the time when we will displace the Danes in the remarkable position to which they have attained. We have the advantage of a better climate, and all feeding conditions arc equal. “All farmers should seriously consider the wonderful opportunity awaiting them. The only essentials are to breed the right quality and to apply themselves diligently to the care and| proper feeding of the animal. The pigs; will do the rest.”