INSURANCE ON PIGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1939, Page 3

INSURANCE ON PIGS

INVESTIGATION UNDER WAY. THE EFFECT ON GRADING. The possibility of imposing an insurance on all pigs sold for slaughter and requiring that killing sheets showing weight and grade be returned to all sellers, in an effort to offset the bad effects on the grading of baconers that have arisen as a result of nogr.ade or saleyard buying, is being investigated by the Department of Agriculture, on the recommendation of the National Pig Industry Council. The recommendation was adopted at the annual meeting in Wellington after the chairman, Mr A. H. Cockayne, had stated in his annual report that as a result.of his visit to England last year he was most impressed with the real importance of an immediate improvement in the quality of our pig-meat if there were to be any expansion in volume of our exports. “Southern Hemisphere frozen baconers in Great Britain are acceptable in increasing quantities, provided quality improves,” said Mr Cockayne. Two countries are concerned in this, New Zealand and Australia. “New Zealand first began to supply the demand for frozen baconers with what were virtually ungraded pigs, the best of which were satisfactory. Australia is entering the field with all the knowledge that New Zealand experience has provided, and their export, which represents a small selected surplus of a yet undeveloped potential output, is often viewed as better than the New Zealand pig by the English curers. “With the expansion of their export and the adoption of grading, this high standard can be maintained, and it creates a serious rival to our trade now developed to half capacity, and of a quality that is only three-quarters as good as it might be.

WEAKEST FEATURE. “The situation is peculiar to the pigmeat trade, and is absolutely the weakest feature of it in New Zealand. In spite of the fact that killings for export today are approximately seventythousand carcases less than last year, it is untenable to presume that this is other than a normal fluctuation due to present circumstances, and that there will be a continued increase in the volume of pig-meat produced. “While the present volume of low grade pig-meat can be disposed of satisfactorily on the English market, any increase in the volume of this class of meat is likely to have serious repercussions on the value of the whole of our export. “When pigs are graded after being backed-down, such grading is accepted without question by the English curers. Otherwise little notice is taken of the grading. In the immedi-

ate future it will be necessary to see that all exported baconers are backeddown prior to grading. NO-GRADE BUYING. “When grading was introduced it was generally agreed that' its premier objective was to improve the quality of pigs for export ip order to keep pace with improvements already made by our competitors. This improvement could be brought about most effectively by the payment of premiums for quality pigs, and the majority of exporting firms and pig-buyers undertook to pay these premiums on an agreed basis. “As soon as reduced payment for lower grades was added to reductions already being made for rejections, disease, and condemnations, the whole question of selling on a quality basis was brought into disfavour, and last year has seen a swing over to no-grade buying either at per head or per pound. This form of buying masks inferior quality, and so makes grading ineffective in the improvement of pigs.”