THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

Shannon News, 16 May 1924, Page 4

THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

the MAiuviarmu or egos. Following is the second portion oj the lecture on the marketing, grading and freezing of eggs dedivercu j>y Air F C Brown, Cliiei Government poultry -Expert, to Levin poultrymen ■■- m Oddfellows' Hall on Thursday evening, the first .portion- o! which appeared in our last issue. STANDARD MUST BE MAINTAINED. There were in this .country, Air Is.ra.wn stated, certain people who advocated sending to the English market a smaller egg than that accepted lor export last year, but lie assured them that that would be the rock the industry would perish on. In England, eggs were sold by the long hundred at die rale ol : 161bs to this measure, and New Zealand mid made a reputation by-the manner in which they had coirtormed to this requirement. If 4hey were to reduce the weight ,and send a 151 b or even a 141 b as some people advocated, the good name of the New Zealand product would be lost. IMPROVED BREEDING NECESSARY. Instead of reducing the weight o, the egg for export what should bo aimed at was to breed a hen -win. would lay a greater number of egg* of 2ozs and over. Whilst it was necessary to reject 50 per cent to biper cent, of the eggs sent in, it was plain that the wrong sort of egg was being produced and before they couiu build up a successful export trade this had to be rectified. The graders wanted people to send' in only Zoz eggs'and this was the sort they snould produce. SEALING BY WEIGHT.

In New Zealand eggs were sold en a Ijoz. standard. That Is there were a large proportion oi such. eggs amongst those winch were accepted as .normal weight, eggs, and as long as the producer could get as uiucji lor this weight egg he was not going to try to produce a. heavier one. What was wanted was to bring about a change in the manner "or selling eggs in New,. Zealand, and .sell them by the long . hundred us was done in lingland. Could they make the. standard ol egg required in New Zealand the same as that required in England they wjould have solved the question ' ol producing the rigid egg lor export. , J" SERVICE Tllli BASIS OF SUCCESS. . ;'i'he egg circles had tailed lor the reason that they had failed to improve the article offered to the public. As things.were at present his Department could not advocate poultry men to join up with those organisations. They were excellent in a way as bringing about the organisation without which no industry could exist, hut until they realised that, the basis ol' success was to give the public something better than it had been getting, they were not going to get very far. The Department of Agriculture looked upon the attempt to organise with the greatest favour, and ii they saw the organised poultrynien doing something to benefit the public would do all they could to assist them by advocating the general run ol poultrynien to join the- organisations. Figures compiled by his Department showed that hall' the householders ol New Zealand, to the number of 145,000, kept fowls. Yet there were only six or seven thousand poultry owners, members of the organisations. it the bnlk of those keeping fowls were organised, they would soon be able to raise the standard of egg produced if they aimed at a 2oz egg. That would .be the way to make the chain brand I popular. The eggs moreover should j be sold clean and inviting in ■appearance and the greatest care should be taken that they were not, too manv days old when they were offered t< the public. It must be remembered that an egg begins to go off from the moment it is laid and nothing puts people off eggs so much as finding a bad one. Even with all this, said the lecture, lie was ajfraid they would have to get rid of the chain brand. The chain brand had been put. on every size and quality of 'eggs where it should only be put on the best ones. Ft was the system of sale that was wrong. The producer, got the same price for the small egg as for . \hc large, and so lacked incentive to produce a better (article. It wais time an alteration was made. Give the ; public a first quality article with the guarantee of the organisation (behind it and the public would be willing to pay for it. EXPLOITATION OF PRODUCERS. There had recently been compiled , returns showing the quantity of eggpulp in stock on the 31st March and 31st July of last year so that it might be ■ ascertained if there was any great carry-over of pulp. These returns showed that there was 395 tons of pulp in store. It would be interesting to know how many tons of this pulp had been put'down by the producer. If on the other hand it had been put down by the agents, it was open to question if these men would not buy in, the cheapest markets, and being human, if they would not endeavour to see that the;markets suited them. For instance if an agent had a con-, tract for so many tons of egg-pulp, he would naturally fill that contract ! at the cheapest possible price to him- ■ : self, and the producer whose eggs he ! was handling would, conceivably, ae the sufferer.

FURTHER ORGANISATION NECESSARY.

Every branch of the industry should be under co-operation. Every big industry in New Zealand was organised. The butter industry for instance was organised up to the hilt. The .poultry men had a very fine little industry. They had had a bad time la.st year i because of the high cost of feed, but now that they had got on the London market, they were on the right lines. AH that was wanted was co-operation. If, instead of producers fighting one another they were to co-operate there would be a great improvement in the industry in a few years. INDIVIDUAL EFFORT NECESSARY. All. New Zealand had been waiting for the New Zealand Pomiltry Association to bring about the reforms) which' he had 'indicated. He had him-.'

self taken a lot of interest in tins Association from its inception, it was a good thing as far as it went, hut he diu not think it would ever bring about the changes in' organisation necessary, It was lor each local /organisation to, put-it's own house in oiuer. Nothing was heiitg. done as tar as he could see to bring about an increased consumption of eggs in New Zealand. Quite the reverse in fact.. There were a lot of bad eggs coming on to the market and uniort/uinateiy in Wellington, when, anybody got a bad egg they rang him up and blamed him for it. (Laughter). If they would put only good eggs on the market, people would eat more eggs and the poultrymen would get better prices tor their produce..

If at present some person rang him up .in Wellington and asked bun where he couid get 12 good eggs, guaranteed sound, he could not tell him. There was no system of testing eggs for age or other defect and the fact re-acted on the producer. MANIPULATION OF MARKETS.

As" far as the manipulation of the market' went, this did not concern him. He thought, however, tna.t if the producers' saw the market being manipulated, they should do what they could to stop it. From his own experience he could say that the manipulation of the markets in Wellington during the past few years had done more : to discourage •' poultryfarmers than anything else'. These fluctuations had taken place without any apparent cause. When eggs were scarce owing to . the lack or production it was natural to. expect an increase in price,, but it did not always follow. However, he would not say .any more on this score; tl#is was a 'matter for the poultrymen themselves.-