POULTRY NOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 91, 20 July 1943, Page 7

POULTRY NOTES

PRIMING OF TABLE POULTRY There is always a keen demand in the main centres for well-primed table poultry, but unfortunately a large number of birds reaching our local markets are of a rather inferior quality, especially as regards age and condition. The successful farmer realises the advantage of priming his, cattle, sheep and pigs before ottering them! to the butcher, but it would appear that a number of poultry-keepers do not fully appreciate the. importance of priming their before offering them for .sale. The result is that the price realised is often unsatisfactory, and the birds are equally unsatisfactory to the consumer. Tests Conducted l lin order to bring the matter under the notice of poultry-keepers, | the Department of Agriculture eonducted two priming tests in Canterbury some years ago,, and. full particulars were published in the "Journal of Agriculture." In the first test .'il cockerels were purchased under competition at one of the weekly poultry sales at Christchureh. The birds were then taken to the Department's' reserve at Quail Island, and were, led on ordinary weil-balanced fattening, diet. After 24 to 31 days' treatment I

the birds were again offered i'or sale at the same auction mart, and returned, aftel* deducting cost of feeding, a profit of 92 per cent. The summarised results of the first test Avere as follows:— Number of birds bought 31 Average, weight when bought 3.081b Average weight when sold .. 5.1 lib Aggregate purchased price .. £2/7/1 Aggregate selling price .... £5v 12/7 Gain in value £3/5/3 Cost, of feed £1/1/8 Profit £2/3/7 Second Test In the second test, (51 cockerels were purchased under competition at a weekly auction, and after 2(5 days' treatment they were again sold at the same auction mart. In this case the birds ranged from four and a half to five half a half months old, and, generally speaking, were of superior quality to those purchased for the previous test. The summarised results were as follows:— Cost of cockerels £7/3/11 Food cost of, priming .... £3/8/10 Total :... £11/2/9 Less three birds, unsold .... £0/11/2 Cost of food consumed, and purchased cost of 57 birds, including 2 destroyed .. £10/11/7 Proceeds from sale of birds £12/12/10 Profit (equalling 19 p.-c.) . . £2/1/3

Note: No reduction was made for food eaten by two birds destroyed ancl the. three not sold. Average weight when sold, o.alb. Average gain per bird,, I.Blb. The second test indicates that even some of the better class birds seen in the. market are often not as good as they might be. The test, was not carried .out to encourage the buying of store birds at auction .sales for priming, but to demonstrate in a practical way the advantage of placing birds on the market in the. best of condition, it may be mentioned that during the second week of the second test two birds developed chicken pox and three contracted colds. The two former were destroyed, and the latter were isolated and took no part in the test. It will be seen, therefore, that buying mixed birds at auction is a risky business. The tests indicated that mueli money was then being lost to the industry by marketing poultry intended for tabic, purposes which were not in the best of condition, anil even to-day a Aasit to poultry auction marts will reveal that many birds are still being offered for sale which are not in the most profitable condition.