HOW CARCASE QUALITY SCHEME HELPS WITH PIGS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 93, 10 September 1948, Page 5

HOW CARCASE QUALITY SCHEME HELPS WITH PIGS

Following the usual monthly meeting of the Thornton, Y.F.C. Mr Barwell, District Pig Supervisor of the Pig Council, - gave a lecture touching on points of interest from the Supervisor’s Conference held at Ruakura last November and leading up to the Carcase Quality Scheme. Mr Barwell dealt briefly with several of the more common diseases in pigs and spoke on the research work that has been carried out to date to combat these. Amongst those mentioned were Bovine Tuberculosis, Avian T. 8., Brucella T. 8., mange, 'worms of various types, ulcers and salmonella suipestifer. A brief account of Dr Wallace’s lecture on reproduction followed relating to litter production, growth rate and quality of parents. Mr John Hancock, a Swedish born lecturer and who is now working with Dr McMachan on Genetic fesearch etc., spoke on points regarding pedigree, strain and testing. Quite a lengthy discussion arose as to whether New Zealand should establish tpsting stations but although it was deemed advisable it would undoubtedly be impracticable as it was felt there would be a lack of sufficiently keen volunteer breeders. A great deal of extra labour and care are necessary to ensure accurate measurements of weight of feed and growth rate and it was felt very few would be prepared to carry this out. However, Mr Barwell went on to discuss the Carcase Quality Scheme which is operating in New Zealand and which is also the best substitute for test stations as run in Denmark fcife: instance.

There, the individual breeders’ pigs are weighed and measured “on the hooks,” their growth rate and prolificacy are studied and these points are widely advertised in the case of a §ood pig. Hence, all buyers naturally wanting to buy good stock, buy from these better classes. Consequently, a farmer with poor quality pigs either must improve them or go out of business. In New Zealand the C.Q.S. is entirely free of charge and is operated by any of the works in New Zealand. All that is necessary is for one parent of the litter to be registered, pigs must be baconers, i.e., 1751bs weight optimum and the farmer is to certify farrowing date. A slip of paper supplied by the representative is given to the farmer to hand on to his carrier and a short time afterwards his returns are furnished. These tell him how his sows are producing, what sons of progeny he can expect from his boars, the milking quality of his sows and many other important factors.