FREE SOWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 June 1938, Page 3

FREE SOWS

IRISH PLAN TO INCREASE PRODUCTION. AIM OF BACON MARKETING BOARD. A greatly increased population seems to be the aim of the Eire (Irish Free State) Government. Its Bacon Marketing Board intimates that producers are to have the advantage of a large number of cows free of initial cost and on terms otherwise very advantageous to them. The scheme' is expected to increase pig production and to improve the quality of the pig for bacon production. The board is aware that pig producers are inclined to produce a heavy and extra fat pig, and in the new price order they have given a premium for the pig considered most desirable for first-class bacon. The grading measurements for this light, lean pig are more exacting, especially in the matter of shoulder fat, than for the ordinary grades.

“The board is forced to the conclusion that the heavy shoulder is the weakest point in our pig production, and that with careful selection of strain the majority of producers will be enabled to breed the pig required for this bonus grade.”

An unofficial statement from Eire mentions that the idea is to spend about £50,000 on the distribution of some 10,000 young sows as soon as possible. The sows will be issued on loan. If they do not prove suitable at two years they will be taken back fat by the board, and the farmers will get anything over £5 after that is realised on the sale.

Obviously the Government wants to get the country back to its former position in the bacon market. It looks as if this effort is in anticipation of Eire being given a bigger share of the British bacon market under the New Trade Agreement, now being drafted in London. At the moment there is no indication of the source of the 10,000 young sows.

So far as the question of better quality is concerned, there is no mention of any distribution of improved boars, which would seem to be necessary. Irish bacon, however, makes a good price on the London market today. Recently the quotation for lean, sizeable Irish was up to 995, while English and Danish No. 1 were making 98s. Under the bacon quota scheme operated by the Board of Trade, Ireland has a figure of 127,600 cwt. for February-April period, compared with 205,000 cwt. for Northern Ireland and 806,899 cwt. for Denmark. England also receives live pigs from Eire. In 1937 the total was 42,525, out of which about 20,000 went over under cover of a certificate for curing.