LECTURE TO POULTRYMEN.

Shannon News, 13 May 1924, Page 4

LECTURE TO POULTRYMEN.

MARKETING OF EGOS

in the Oddfellows'- Hall on .Thursday the-Chief Government Poultry w Mr F C Brojwn, assisted toy. Mr L. docker instructor for the ■Wellington district, as demonstrator, delivered alecture .to Levin poultry keepers on tttie marketing, grading and freezing of eggs. Mr H. Leger presided ovei a 'gathering of twenty odd .poultrylll6Xl Mr Brown, in acknowledging Hie thanks expressed .by the chairman lor his coming to Levin, said it gave nun "•t-eai, pleasure to visit -m. centre where the industry was -making such st-rid.cs as locally It was where there was .a progressive hotly of poultrymen .111 J a locality that Ih<e, subject or his lee- 1 ture, the marketing and export oi eggs' would be of value. It might seem like putting the cart bellore tlie horse to deal with the subject 'Of .marketing before that <*£ production, a subject in which a number of those present -would be moie intimately interested. In New Zealand last year however they were in a sosition where ..the demand was not equal to the supply and there was a great danger of over-production, and whilst -the standard of ,'birds kept in wiKh those of any other country, the weak link in the whole .system was the marketing. While this was so the industry could not flourish as- u Should and dt behoved them as business men to go into the question 01 outside markets carefully.. ,„,__ IMPROVED MARKETING NELDLD. Whilst on the subject he would like'to mention that the question of marketing was one he did not care to deal with. There were a number ol marketing organisations in New Zealand each one of which was contending against the other/ still whilst he would prefer to keep off the subject, while he was on it he would endeavour to deal with it honestly. Ho would have do criticise the present organisations pretty strongly, hut he would endeavour to give .some constructive criticism as well. If he pulled down he would also try to build up And further 'he would like to say that-lie"was* not Ithere on behalf of any organisation', but on behalf ol the industry as a whole. Speaking from his own experience he could say that, the eggs produced throughout the Dominion were ,of a very high quality. For years past he had been advocating improved methods of marketing. The average poultrymen ,w.as looking to the NewZealand Poultiy Association to bring aboutjthis improvement hut in the 13 yeairs during which the Association had been in existence little, or no progress had been made on the an am line of giving the .public a better egg than before. Seeing that the organised body .had honestly attempted to improve matters and also that private poultrymen gave ia toit of time and thought to 'the matter without effecting much improvement they • could only conclude that the lines on ■which they had been working had been wrong. A new system was needed. FAILURE OF EGG CIRGLiLiS.

Generally, speaking the present system satisfied the producer and drum one way of .thinking it might to said that the matter should end there, bat that was merely a short-sighted manner of viewing the- situation. A lew years ago when there was no organisation in the industry in New Zealand, he and o>ther officers of the' Department of Agriculture had gone through the country advocating the formation of egg circles. They had stated at the time thai, the object ol such circles when formed should he, not to form trusts which would exploit the public, but to place in the hands of the public ,a good egg and at the same time give to the producer an adequate return loa 1 his industry. They had said at this time lalso thai the matter of marketing should be

left in the hands of the agents as it took one man to produce and another to distribute. This would now have to be, reconsidered. These egg circles had failed, as was now generally recognised, because they had failed to put on the market a better egg than the unorganised article. While this was so they could not expect to get a better return for their product than could the unorganised producer. They would notice that the organised egg had tihe jjhain nrand on it: advertising w.as done "telling people to eat more eggs, but the fact remained that such eggs were of no better quality than any other with the result that the whole (things was useless. RESTRICTED BRANDING ADVOCATED.

At the depot whpre the eggs were

received i'qr the shipments recently sent to Lond'Oii, ,the general feeling was ffliat instead of branding all qualities ol eggs with the chain brand, each egg should be branded with the name ol the producer and .alter grading, only put the chain brand on first quality eggs. By this means a better quality egg would be put on the market and the public would ,be willing to pay ,1 or the superior article. LAItGER EGG NEEDED. His experience in visiting the various ngg circles was tfaat the manner in which many producers sent in >eggs was a credit ,to them.' In ithe oase ol others however, they were lucky il they got from two to three dozen first quality eggs suitable .for export, lirom every five cases sent in. Under the present system there was no isUtodardisatkHi ol eggs. Witjh organisation throughout New Zealand it would be possible to see that Only a standard weight egg was put on the market and that it was guaranteed to be of not more than a certain age. At present the same price .was paid for the large eggs and <the small ones and there was nothing to make producers breed hens .wtech would lay eggs of the desired weight. WEIGHT NEEDED FOR EXPORT. Eggs of 2ozs and over were needed for export and something must bo. done to ,see that eggs of this weight were produced. When tie idea of exporting eggs to England to relieve the .summer glut.was first conceived, his Department tad issued a npmplilet in .which was set forth, the weigfiit of £gg re-

quired i'or export and Uio oonUitiujis under which they could be received. This pamphlet Iliad been issued J/'ee, and distributed widuly to the various organisations. It was only to he expected that the producers would conform to the conditions laid down .11; the pamphlet, but whether it was that they failed to read it or just did not think it was wothhy of serkm\ consideration, the fact remained thai at most of the depots it was. found j necessary to refuse 50 per cent, to SO I per cent, of ,the eggs sent in lor export. If after sending this cireulai out the eggs .received were the best offering, those that remained must have been of a pretty inferior quality. These eggs mostly came through the organised bodies. When a producer sent eggs to such a body he knew -flhat he was going to get as much for the small ones as for the large ones. Many men. did not send any eggs for export ,and got as good or better prices locally .than those, who did. There were men also who would rather accept t a smaller price and save the work oi grading eggs for export. What was 1 needed 'was .id raise the standard of the egg and the bigger price to .be obtained in consequence would speedily bring these men in to the organisation. SELLING BY WEIGHT. Another question which would ba.ve to be tackled was that of selling by weight. Egg pulp was always sold by weight,' and it was not right that the man who produced a 2J,oz egg should receive only the same price for it to make egg-pulp, as did Ihe man who produced a l£oz. egg; -which was the standard ou which eggs were sold in New Zealand; The remainder of the lecture dealing with the export of eggs will be j given in .a later issue.