PIG PRODUCTION DECLINES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 133, 8 March 1940, Page 4

PIG PRODUCTION DECLINES

IT is a strange anomaly of New Zealand primary production economy that better advantage is not taken of the market offered by Britain for pig meats, particularly bacon. The Government and the organisations dealing with the pig industry have for years been actively encouraging the raising of more pigs and have placed advice and service at the disposal of farmers. Yet at the end of January the number of pigs slaughtered showed a reduction of 35 per cent from the previous year and the weight of pigs killed a reduction of 21 per cent. In view of Britain's urgent need of bacon and New Zealand's need to increase exports by every possible means, this position is serious. Such a heavy decrease in production in one year indicates there is something seriously wrong with the industry and that steps should be taken promptly to find a remedy. Pig raising in New Zealand has never been popular, and yet it could with adequate organisation be made a profitable form of farming not merely as a "sideline" to be taken at odd intervals. Investigation will disclose that there are several main factors contributing to the loss of interest in pig farming, and they should not be beyond remedy. The raising of pigs requires particularly large quantities of food at reasonable prices and a large amount of labour, and those are the two chief difficulties at present. The obvious disinclination to raise pjerg Qould be overcome were there the certainty of adequate profit. Prices on the overseas market are not the difficulty, and there is a ready market for all that New Zealand can produce. But the Dominion's agricultural economy is not balanced in such a way as to encourage pig farming. The Government has made a quantity of Australian barley available at cheaper priaes, and some use is being made of itBut conditions have militated against an assuied supply of competent labour, without which farmers are seriously handi capped. Still, with all the difficulties, it is very doubtful whether New Zealand farmers are giving that serious attention to pig raising which it would pay them to give.