THE EXPORT OF EGGS.

Shannon News, 16 May 1924, Page 4

THE EXPORT OF EGGS.

GOVERNMENT EXPERT'S VIEWS. In the final section of his lecture in Levin last week, Air 1\ C. -Brown,: the Chief Government Poultry Expert, dealt with the export oi eggs,. Although it had been necessary to reject 50 per cent."to 80-per'cent." of the eggs farwistfded. for export, lie •said, Mr Merrett, the Loudon agent had informed liim that" out of: 3500 cases exported there had been only one bad egg. They 1 lad every right to feel gratified at this and also pleased at the trade which had been established-in one' year. Throughout. England-and America articles had been wjitlfjen / iub'ouit the quUility of those eggs, but there was "still -room for improvement. This shipment had beciu iniore. or less experimental, and many lessons had been learned- from it. Now- that the market had' been' established they must get "a. way from the experimental stage,and get--right down to business methods. A more economical'- method of handing must he evolved. They had received 2s sd, per dozen for the s'hipment, but it had cost, nearly Is per dozen, or Id each to put them on the market. TOO MUCH HANDLING. What lie wanted to ' impress on those present was that, if tdiey produced five cases of eggs per'week, and "only •one case conformed to* the requirements of the circular sent out by the Department as to the quaJitv of egg required for' shipment, it was better to send in only one case and [ keep the other four, it seemed a pity to send in a lot of eggs which the producer must know would be rejected. 'The-expense of handling every egg was considerable fund whilst the" shipment had succeeded this year owing to the excellent price obtained, there was no guarantee that the price would ' always be so good, so that the utmost ecnooniy was necessary. '. ' It would be misleading to say that the producers did well last year, where the Department gave-their services for grading free, and did 'what they could to insure the right kind of egg being sent in., by sending' free to producers a circular sotting forth their requirements, it was up to the po-ultry-fanners to do their part. The Department had reserved a certain amount of space- for this shipment,

and it was nothing for the'department ta,| officers to work all night grading eggs which the producers should have

themselves "graded, so that they would not have to pay for blank' space. There was nothing to prevent the .poidtry farmer from grading his own eggs before they caime in. A thing that would possibly be done in order

to compel this was to impose a heavy grading lee on all eggs which were rejected. This would hit the caroless producer'and" the''only-way to get'at suuh people was 'through their pockets.

J He believed that an Act was on the I way to give producers the alternative of grading and packing their own eggs for export, the Department having the right to go through the packages to see that they conformed to standard. He- hardly thought, how-, ever, What the time was ripe- for this and considered that for the present at any rate the existing system was best. With, fruit and other goods it was possible to get a good idea of the quality of the goods from the outside, but &gga could only be judged by examining them ' individually against a light. . When the Government put its stamp \ on a case of eggs they took a great responsibility, people at Home"«were willing to buy on the Government" guarantee and description and the Department had to see that there, was no falling off from the standard. Last year it had taken three weeks to gel 500 cases of eggs together. It was hardly right to ask .the Government to put its. brand on an egg which was three weeks old. It .was only by sending in graded eggs that they could get a shipment together quickly and it was by. getting a shipment together quickly that they could ensure,, qualify. .", QUALITY MUST BE MAINTAINED. The lecturer, again his audience against the danger of sending to England eggs under 2 o/.s in weight. It cost just as. much to send Home a 1$ oz.-. egg as it did one of S ozs., and they would assuredly get'

less for it. The important point, bowever, was that they would spoil the reputation ol the New Zealand produce. .

The small egg question was a serious one and the best thing that could be done was to breed a lien that would Jay a large egg. Many hens, and especially White Leghorns, were becoming too small and would naturally lay a small egg. The whole object of the poultryinan had been to get a Jot oi eggs: the quality of the i-'gg did not matter since he got the same price for the small egg as the large one, and. the result was that the question of size had been neglected and the wrong type of hen bred.

There was no use in putting eggs of less than i ozs into the inuuibator.' Such a procedure merely resulted in passing..tihe weakness li'om one generation to another. When going round from one place to another he Jfad frequently pointed' this out to poultrymen where be saw that the Wrong standard of egg was being produced hut invariably the answ-eu- that they got the same priew for the small egg as for the large one brought him up against a stone wall. There were oat the other hand, hen s which laid a2l oz. egg. When •u poultry 4Quft oggs of this size in for pulp he ga.ve far more weight per dozen than did the man who produced the If oz. egg-. Tnis was not. right when, the pulp produced was ■ sold' -by weight. There Was another point also in that if eggs could, be sold by weight it would save counting again those rejected for export and which were intended for pulping. CLEAN EGGS.

•Many hundreds" of o.gga, had been rejected for export because tlioy were dirty. They could not afford to export an egg,with a spot of dirt on it it they were" to keep up their reputation. Dirty eggs were in practi- . colly every instance the effect, of bad handling; they were left lying about in the shells and yards and this was 'he result. A thing which could not be over-emphasised was that dirt enabled bacteria to enter the egg and gave rise to such trouble as "black spot.". When ' .getting the shipment together last year the Department had had to put on girls cleaning eggs and this had eafused more expense which might have been avoided. They should correct this. A good article .should i look- a good article arid his experij ence was that.it would always sell i well. ' - - WASHING EGGS. Another thing for which eggs had been rejected was because mev had been washed with soap. Eggs took -up every kind of scent with which thoy were brought in contact. Where it wa s necessary eggs should be .wiped over with a damp cloth but oil no considenallicwi should soap be (used. London ,was the most critical market in the world and they must conform to .its requirements. " •-'

Eggs should never be packed in chaff. .Where aiiy" became broken the cha.ff stuck' to the shells of the .-other eggs and it was .found impossible to keep the chaff out of the pulp for this reason.

IWire carriers were also condemned, rn a large consignment sent from the South. Island in these carriers it was found that. .probably ,-i.s the result of the vibration during the train journey the wire had made, a black line right round the-egg which it was impossible to get off. Thousands nf eggs had had to be rejected for this reason. • The Department preferred that for export should the infertile rather than fertile as it was found that thev kept better. ■YOKK COLOUR. Under test it was possible to tell wlifcfier egfts had the pale yellow yokes which were so objectionable. Then- was nothing would put people •off eating eggs as quickly as gettingone of these pa.le vol low .yoked When it Was found that"hen s were inclined to lay such, thev should be given a ration of maize" and plenty of green feed. Too much mangold's was a frequent cause of the trouble. Regarding blood-spot, there was northing- which could be done to prevent the trouble. This was one of the reasons why it was so important that .eggs, should be tested before being exported. * CONCLUSION.

In conclusion, Mr Brown stated, he could only recapitulate what he had already sivid. There wore great possibilities of reliorm in the industry. They should aim <at producing better and bigger eggs. Only brand the best oggs. There were many of tihe big producers who stood Out of the organisations because they could not see where they .would be" benefited by coming in. If they could .produce a better egg t Which would cam.rn.and a better price, within the organisation, these big men would come in. Tt would he folly to desert their organisations. Thither they 'should stick to them and endeavour to make them, bv 'better grading a.nd marketing, of greater value to the producer and to the puMic.