LEAN BACON TO-DAY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 19, 15 October 1937, Page 35 (Supplement)

LEAN BACON TO-DAY

"Pigs," as one writer remarked many years ago, "is pigs." Such a statement was probably all right in the good old days whsn a pig^ was .nothing but a pig, but to-day there is a great deal more than a pig in a pig. The farmer who wishes to make money from his pigs must to-day produce the right type of pig. The consumer may be "fussy," but, as he pays, lie has the right to demand the right type of pork or bacon. New Zealand is a young country, and pig production is probably the youngest of our agricultural industries. It behoves us, therefore, to take particular pains t.o supply the consumer with what he requires. Catering for the public is essential to-day if the producer is to maintain and improve his position. Take-it-or-leave-it methods will not stand when competitors are only too willing to go to any length to expand their markets. Dietitians and connoissfurs inform us that the fat side has the better bacon, but the public, being notably contrary, cares not one jot for what dietitians may say. That argument is upset by the common-sense remark of the average purchaser that, "that may be so, but when a pound of bacon is purchasgd we expect to get at least some bacon, and not only fat." That briefly sums up the onecessity for the pig producers to breed the right type of pig. In the Dominion we have a large number of progressive breeders who are all aiming at breeding stock which will produce the type of carcase that the trade demands. Length, leanness, and a well-finished animal are demanded. That is what we must supply.