Poultry-keeping "Pioneer Back-yard Industry"’

Press, Volume C, Issue 29510, 11 May 1961, Page 8

Poultry-keeping "Pioneer Back-yard Industry" ’

Opening the eighth annual poultry farmers’ refresher course at Canterbury Agricultural College' yesterday. Mr B. E. Taiboys, Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Industries and Commerce, ’lsaid that in the last few months he had had the opportunity of seeing something of New Zealand's industry.--Many of the most efficient industries today had started as 'backyard industries, he said, but of backyard Industries he regarded the poultry industry as the pioneer. On many farms it still occupied this position in that the returns from it were the pin money for the farmers' wife. But even if that was the traditional role of the poultry industry, Mr Taiboys said, he did not lose sight of the fact that the commercial producer supplied the bulk of the eggs that passed through licensed distributors or that it was the commercial breeder who supplied the householder with birds for his flock. Mr Taiboys said he did not know the economics of back, yard poultry-keeping it might be more economic to buy eggs from the comer store than buy birds and feed and dig the manure into the garden—but the fact remained that people seemed to like keeping birds. New Zealanders, he said, now consumed 25 dozen eggs a head of the population a year. This was an increase of about twb dozen in the last two year?, and made New Zealand one of the biggest egg-eating countries Ln the world. £l2m Industry The value of egg production in New Zealand Was now about £l2m, which also made the poultry industry one of the largest industries in the country, so that its

well-being was a matter of importance to the whole country.

If the fact of domestic egg production was accepted then it became a case of producing the best birds for that work, said Mr Taiboys. He was interested to note that the industry was at present fortunate in having Dr. R. K. Cole, professor of poultry genetics from Cornell University, in this country under a Fulbright award, and he was also interested to hear of the formation of a hjgeders' society which propoeed to work under a genetWrt. This represented the acceptance of the best knowledge available.

It had been suggested to him, said Mr Taiboys that the poultry industry in this country was rather flying on one wing—it could also produce a great deal more meat. As a fat-lamb producer, he said, he was a little appre. hensive of that, although he knew some farmers who ran dry poultry and popped them into their deep freezers. There might be some scope for the industry in this direction. “but heavens knows what is going to happen to our lamb industry if we create more competition for it at home. That is already happening, of course, in the United Kingdom with broiler expansion."

Mr Taiboys said that while in New Zealand every person ate on an average 981 b of beef and veal, 881 b of lamb and mutton and only 3.51 b of poultry, in the United States the figures were 871 fr of beef and veal, 311 b of poultry and only 31b of lamb, so that it seemed that opportunities were offering in both countries if advantage could be taken of them.