WHAKATANE PIG SUPERVISOR SAYS THE BAY OF PLENTY INDUSTRY IS FLOURISHING ENCOURAGINGLY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 81, 2 May 1949, Page 5

WHAKATANE PIG SUPERVISOR SAYS THE BAY OF PLENTY INDUSTRY IS FLOURISHING ENCOURAGINGLY

What of New Zealand’s Pig Industry? How does the industry fare in the Bay of Plenty? What progress has been made in the, past year?

In an interview with the Beaeon Mr A. F. Barwell, Whakatane, Supervisor for the Bay of Plenty Pig Council, gave some answers to these questions.

What of New Zealand’s Pig Industry? The decrease in the overall pig population was a matter of deep concern,■ Mr Barwell said. Leaders of the industry had got to the stage where they had abandoned “stop gap” methods of tackling the problem and had already inaugurated a scheme to find out at what stage Ihe appalling pig losses occur. From the figures that are available it is estimated that half the pigs that are horn never reach the “hooks”; that is, they die from one cause or another and are not slaughtered for human use. It is also estimated that if only half a pig per litter could be saved it would mean an extra 70,000 pigs per annum, equivalent to approximately £420,000 to the dustry.Huge Loss At Works

Condemnations at works, in whole or in part, cost the industry £144,212/12/10 for the year ended September 30, 1947 and the amount of pig-flesh this sum represented was totally lost as food. It is hoped that the Pig Husbandry Loss Survey that is at present being conducted throughout New Zealand will reveal at what ages the biggest losses occur and at what time of year and under what conditions.

When this information has been analysed and the cause and effect pinpointed, direct action can be taken to reduce the heavy mortality. It is not so much a matter of keeping sows to get more pigs, but rather to save the pigs that are farrowed.

How does the industry fare in the Bay of Plenty? The facts are very encouraging. There is an odd dairy farm here and there that has gone out of butterfat production and is noW only carrying sheep but taken over the counties of Opotiki, Whakatane, Rotorua, Tauranga and Ohinemuri, they are really few and far between, Mr Barwell pointed out. Statistics show that the total pig population in these counties has steadily increased from 65 thousand at January 31, 1944 to 69 thousand at January 31, 1947.

The figures for the years ending January 31, 1948 and 1949 are not yet available but from the closer settlement and further development that has taken place in the past years there is every rea'son to believe that the steady increase of a thousand a year has been well maintained.

Pigs Increasing As yet the effect of the drying of buttermilk by the Opotiki Dairy Co. and the Rangitaiki Plains Co-op. Dairy Factory has not been felt, but offsetting the approximate number of 3,000 fat pigs that these factories will not produce is the everincreasing number of. soldier settlers whose farms are steadily increasing - in production and will therefore be producing more pigs. “How about the older established farms?” Mr Barwell was asked. Undoubtedly the - condition of many of the older piggeries has been allowed to deteriorate and many of the older farmers are faced with a' huge repair bill. An effort to catch up with arrears of maintenance as soon as possible is necessary if the disease and mortality figures are to show any rapid improvement.

Marked improvement in housing, feeding and management, and the greater interest which invariably goes with them, is and always will be the true foundation on which must be based the efforts to reduce the losses which inevitably fall on the shoulders of the producer. To the question “What advances have been made in the past year?” Mr Barwell replied, that probably the biggest advance had been achieved in the agreement reached between three representatives of the National Pig Industry Council, two representatives of the Bacon Curers and four representatives of the Exporters v/ho met in conference, with the Director-General of Agriculture as Chairman..

At this conference, general agreement had been reached which enabled putting into operation a system of trial grading from October 1, 1948 to May 31, 1949, which would serve as a basis of grading standards should grading be introduced on October 1, 1949.

This was the first time that such an agreement had been reached be-

tween the Exporters, the Trade and the Producers, and it was a very hopeful sign that a systematic planning for the betterment of the industry may be introduced in the near future. •

More “Finest” Grades It was hoped, he added, that the information gained from the trial run would enable a standard to be set that would allow-about 70 per cent to be graded as about 20 per cent as “Finest Selected” and the other 10 per cent as “Seconds and Unexportable.” Under the present wide open system of grading 96 per cent of the pigs slaughtered went through as Prime No. 1, which showed that New Zealand either had the highest grading pigs in the world or the system was hopelessly out-of-date or unreliable.

How could the position be summarised today? • Originally, the work of Supervisors was mainly concerned with the organising of Pig Clubs, he continued. The war years had a serious effect upon this movement and today there are only three active Pig Clubs in this district. During the war years, and since, the work of Supervisors has been on a much broader basis, embracing a Costing Survey, the administration of the Crop Subsidy Scheme, co-operating with the Lands Department in the rehabilitation of returned servicemen, co-operation with the Federated Farmers establishing Loans to Farmers for Building Piggeries, carrying out the Pig Husbandry Loss Survey, and the recording of pig diseases encountered on farms. Compulsory Grading

Should compulsory grading be introduced it can be expected that Supervisors will have further calls made upon them, where there has been severe grading down and alternatively to record litters of sires and dams whose progeny have consistently reached a high grading standard, and the dispersal of such recorded stock to farmers who are looking for pigs that are grading much higher than their own, Mr Barwell concluded.