DAIRY CO'S PIG FARM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 151, 5 September 1941, Page 4

DAIRY CO'S PIG FARM

Sir, —In your report of the meeting, Mr Lambert enquired Avhy, in spite of the increase in buttermilk, the farm showed less profit., Mr McCracken the chairman said that many difficulties had occurred during the year the chief of which was labour. As I am in charge of the pig farm I think I am entitled to reply to this question of Mr Lambert's, which is a very fair one. I have not seen a balance sheet but noticed in the last the BEACON the amount of profit anil on which, T will not •comirient. I would like to point out, that we had a record production of bacon corresponding to about lib- to every 6 gallons of buttermilk which under ordinary farming conditions cannot be bettered economically and was a wonderful war effort.. We started the season under, and had to continue "with buying Buttermilk pigs at over schedule, tvlxieh is the pig farmers nightmare or else let the milk go down the river (as was done by one dairy company I know) to the extent of 500 baconers and then had to face the market at Christmas with problem of buying dear stores. But w~ faced up to it and as we buy locally the money went into the sup-» pliers pockets, instead of into net profit shown in the balance sheet, awl as a result we were hundreds of baconers above the recortl And thousands of pounds of bacon extra for the Old Country, as; every Dig averaged more than 151bs heavier than had been produced on this farm before. At the end of our buy- 1 'nsj period in March, the bottom fell out of the market and we were holding several hundred approxi-* mately. Six hundred unfinished baconers mostly bought from suppliers at a high price and had no market for same only at a cut-throat price and from March onward is the time when we should have been making our profit. On top of all this w? have 3 miles of piping which has been laid for a good number of years and the maintenance and replacement has run into a big sum besides, other repairs to machinery, tanks, etc. and general maintenance swallows up money at a great rate on a pig farm. Then there are losses through unskilled labour. There is no farm that has had its? entire staff taken twice in six months for the army. So we have two records, bacon supply and manpower supply to help win the war. I am open to wager that many pig farms ended up on the wrong s.ide of the ledger and also that no other Dairy Go's farm showed the profit we did. There are happy faces at the pig sale when we have to get our quota for the farm. Yours etc., STEPHEN EMMERSON.