GRADING OF BACONERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1938, Page 3

GRADING OF BACONERS

POINTS FOR PRODUCERS. STANDARDS EMPLOYED. (By M.’ J. Scott, 8.5., B.Sc., of the Department of Agriculture.) Every baconer pig between the weights of 121 and 1801 b., whether they are for export, exportable or for local consumption, is now graded into one of the following classes: —No. 1 prime, No. 2 prime, No. 3 prime, second grade, or reject. This grading is compulsory under the regulations, no matter whether the pigs are bought at per lb. on hooks’ weight, by auction in the saleyards, or on hoof in the sty or paddock. Producers should fix this fact firmly in their minds, since some buyers, when speaking of “no grade” buying, sometimes leave the impression in the producer’s mind that his pigs will not be graded at all. All baconers killed at licensed slaughtering points must be graded. The grading standards employed are those applied to Canadian bacon, less 1-8 inch where pigs are measured with a trier prior to being split ‘down the back. The measurements taken are the thickness of back fat over the shoulder opposite the third vertebra and over the loin opposite the last vertebra. In addition to these measurements, prime pigs must be shapely, well finished and free from blemishes, with firm white fat. No direct account has been taken of length in the grading standards, but indirectly and quite effectively length is taken into consideration. There is no better related attributes of a pig than his length and the thickness of fat over the shoulder. Ever since these measurements have been made this relationship has been established and found consistently, no matter what the breed of the pig. During the months of October to December the Department was supplied by the trade with measurements of about. 80,000 pigs from almost every killing point in New Zealand. An analysis of these measurements shows that if our pigs are arranged in four groups—shortest, short, long, longest, with equal numbers in each class —the longest pigs are, on the average, 2} inches longer than the shortest, and 3-16 of an inch thinner on the back. This is true for all weights. The average measurements for pigs from 1201 b. to. 1651 b., averaging 1421 b., are as follows:— Shoulder Length back fat inches. inches. Shortest ’ 28.1 1 25/32 Longest 30.3 1 19/32 This means that for pigs of any weight there is, on the average, almost a certainty of getting them thinner on the back by 3/16 of an inch if their length can be increased by two inches. Since length is the only feature that can be observed or judged, while the pig is alive, it is the one thing that the producer can attend to, and he would be well advised to select and use longer pigs for bacon from now on. Where some pigs are sold as pork and some as bacon, it is advisable to look them over when they have reached the 601 b. carcase stage, and decide then to sell the shortest for pork and keep the longest for bacon.