CANADIAN PIGS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 134, 7 May 1940, Page 10

CANADIAN PIGS.

RECORD PRODUCTION. Canadian pigs will play an important part in feeding tlie Allied soldiers, and the 1940 hog production and marketings in Canada will bo the largest recorded in the history of the industry. This forecast is supported by reports of numbers of hogs on farms, the size of the autumn pig crop, intentions to market hogs during the spring of 1940, and by the expected increase in the 1940 spring pig crop as revealed in reports received from farmers. The numbers of hogs on farms at December 1 last, totalled 4,769,600 as compared with 3.568,600 at December 1, 1938. Not only is this the largest number recorded since the December surveys were instituted in 1931, but it also exceeds the numbers recorded at June 1, with the exception of June, 1924. Normally, June numbers arc higher than those in December. The 1939 autumn pig crop was 33 per cent, greater than a year previous. The number of bogs intended for farm slaugbier and for market in the period December, 1939, to May, 1940, were 40 per cent, greater than intentions of a year ago. Commercial marketings during the first eight weeks of 1940 were nearly 42 per cent, greater than for the similai period of 1939. Based on reports of the number of sows expected to farrow, the spring pig crop of 1940 will be 35 pci cent, greater than that of 1938. This will mean increases in marketings in the late summer and throughout the autumn fall of the year.

All the dairy companies operating in the Whangarei district report exceptionally large outputs for last month. Prospects for -May are bright, it being considered that the production will double that of the same month of last year.