EXPORT OF PORK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 114, 17 May 1933, Page 9

EXPORT OF PORK

FUTURE OF INDUSTRY LECTURE BY MR. D. JONES. (Reprinted from The Press, Christchurch.) The possibilities that lie in the development of tho pork export industry in New Zealand were described in au address recently by Mr. David Jones to the Ellesmere branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union at Leeston. Mr. Jones claimed that a country which produced as much dairy produce as thy Dominion should produce a great deal more pork than at present, and he gave details of the work being carried out by the Waikato Pig Recording Club, subsidised by the Meat Producers’ Board, in investigating the problems of pork production in New Zealand. After Mr. Jones’s address Mr. J. Parlane, president of the Canterbury Herd Testing Association, spoke on the work of herd, inspection and testing in the Dominion, and Mr. H. Bliss gave an address on the grading of cream for butter and milk for cheese, strongly criticising the present system. Mr. A. Anderson, president of the branch of the Farmers’ Union, presided. “ The question of pig production in Now Zealand is not a new one,” said Mr. Jones. “ Shortly after the Meat Board started operations I was convinced that there was a great future for our pork and bacon export industry. We arc a great dairying country, and the production of pork, and, perhaps to a smaller extent, that of bacon, should go hand in hand with dairying. ’ ’ In Denmark, Mr. Jones went on, pork and bacon products wero regarded as being almost as important as dairying products. There the dairy companies aided the farmer in every way possible, by lending boars and sows so that the farmers only had to breed the pigs and sell them to the factories. “I was in one particular factory,” Mr. Jones remarked, “that was killing 4000 pigs a week. That will give you some idea of the importance of the industry in Denmark.” Freezing Qualities of Pork. Denmark had an advantage in the bacon industry in that it was close to tho market. Bacon had not yet been sent to England from New Zealand successfully, but there was nothing that froze so satisfactorily as pork, and it could be exported frozen with complete success. Recently a test had been carried out by the Meat Board in which frozen pork from New Zealand had been put in competition with fresh English pork. The judges had awarded the first prize to a piece of New Zealand pork in preference to the fresh English meat. In 1924 he had forecast great developments in the New Zealand pork industry, continued Mr. Jones, and he had helped to arrange a very low rate of freight with shipping companies for tho carriage of pork from tho Dominion to England, on tho suggestion that tho industry could be expected to expand rapidly. Tho costs of pork export, therefore, were satisfactorily low. Pig Recording Olub. Mr. Jones went on to describe the work of the Waikato I’ig Recording Club at Hamilton ,which had been in operation for tho last four or five years, helped by a subsidy from the Meat Board. Immensely valuable results had been attained there in experiments oh 700 litters of pigs. “In New Zealand the amount of pork and bacon produced is really very trifling compared with tho amount we ought to produce,” he remarked. “The export is increasing. Last year’s killings to March 15 totalled 69,000 porkers, while to the same date this year tho figure was 131,000. Last year 14,000 baconcrs were killed, and this year 40,000. If we kill about 200,000 porkers and baconers in tho coming year the total of carcases will be equal in weight to between 600,000 and 700,000 lamb carcases. I. think these figures indicate that what we aro discussing to-night is a very live question.” The Sty Discarded. In tho model piggery at Hamilton the sty had been discarded in favour of an area of, say, three acres, divided into eight or nine different paddocks. AH the experiments that had been carried out had proved that everything depended upon tho bringing up of the pig—on its first eight weeks of life. “ Tho man who lets someone else breed for him and who buys weaners in the market is about as likely to be successful as if he put his money on the totalisator,” Mr. Jones remarked. They had confirmed, too, tho theory that without exception the weaner eight weeks old increased in weight approximately two and a half times in the succeeding eight weeks, and at that ago stopped growing, so that a weaner weighing about 401 b at eight weeks would weigh about 1001 b at 16 weeks. Tho club’s experiments had shown conclusively that tho farmer in tho North Island selling his pork at 4d per lb could do quite well. Tho system that was adopted in tho model piggeries at Hamilton was that the sow was fed with extra food for a short period before farrowing. Three weeks after farrowing tho little pigs were fed separately with special food, and it had been found that this was tho only way that 351 b, 401 b, or even 451 b weaners could bo produced at the age of eight weeks. This had been impossible under the old system of feeding the sow and tho little pigs together. Possibilities in Canterbury. Mr. Jones suggested that the dairy companies in Canterbury should look into the whole question very seriously and that they might even send a representative up to Hamilton, to investigate the work there, so that its benefits could be transplanted to Canterbury. Th© two principal facts illuminated by the club’s experiments wore that every man had to breed his own pigs and breed them properly, and the best methods, which wero also the cheapest, must be followed in both the breeding and raising. Farmers working with the club were carrying about one sow to seven cows. This was far higher than the average throughout New Zealand. However, they wore aiming at that average throughout, the North Island. In the club’s experiments it had been found that the value of the skim milk in raising pigs was 2d per lb of butteriat, which was a fairly considerable figure. In the Waikato they planted their piggeries on the worst pieces of land on their farms, amongst scrub and blackberry. The pigs cleaned it, and

turned it into beautiful pasture. Great care was taken of the grass in the breeding paddocks by means of topdressing, and pigs could bo seen grazing like sheep, grass making up a good portion of their food. “ The marketing of New Zealand pork to-day is very easy if you keep down to the proper weight/-’ said Mr. Jones, “and the proper weight for the English market is 80 lb. A New Zealand pig of this size sells as readily as any pork in the world. If a man has 40 cows he ought to keep four sows and, breeding two litters a year, he should have no' difficulty in sending them all off his place at 801 b Mr. Joues concluded that the Ellersmero district was exceedingly well suited for pig production, and he offered the advice and information at the disposal of the Meat Board for the fostering of the industry in the district.