PIG PREFERENCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 218, 13 September 1940, Page 8

PIG PREFERENCES.

POSITION IN DOMINION. CHANGED TYPE RESISTED. CHRISTCHURCH, this day. The Xew Zealand farmer's preference for a type of pig which, by world standards, was stated to be definitelr inferior, was discussed by Dr. C. p. McMeekau, Professor of Animal Husbandry at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, in an address on the adaptability of live stock to environment, given to the Canterbury branch of the Geographical Society last evening. The English Large White and the Danish Landrace had the highest reputations as the most improved pig breeds in the world for bacon production, Professor McMeekan. They had been developed under a high plane of nutrition conditions, and under the close personal sujtervision of efficient husbandmen. Consequently they demanded similar conditions for efficient production, and were therefore quite unsuited for average Xew Zealand conditions. The Large White was consequents unpopular with the average Xew Zealand farmer, who failed to provide anything approaching the standard of feeding and management required. He preferred his own nondescript pig, which had the immense advantage, under haphazard Xew Zealand methods, of being able to deal with huge volumes of skim milk when tliese were obtainable, and of existing on little or nothing when they were not. "With such a worthy animal, our farmers strongly resist a change to a type which requires feed to keep it alive, even though such a change would brinjr marked improvement in the quality of his product," Professor McMeekan continued. "When I was in London the head of the Bacon Development Board of Britain ' expressed curiosity about the reason for Xew. Zealand's adherence to its present type of pig and for tlie unpopularity of "the Large White—the only animal of importance in tlie country to which we send all our exports and to which we are trying to build up a pig trade. After hearing my story of the inability of the f*iTge White to stand up to the severe conditions of irrational inadequate equipment, filth and disease, and lack of adequate attention on the average Xew Zealand farm, he shook his head sadly and summed up as follows: 'Well, I suppose it is all right—primitive people need primitive animals.'"