PIG PRODUCTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 August 1941, Page 6

PIG PRODUCTION

OUTLOOK FOR COMING SEASON, BACONERS OR PORKERS. Asked about the market prospects for pigs this season, Mr W. A. Phillips, chairman of directors of the New Zealand Co-operative Pig Margeting Association, stated, inter alia, that up to the present there was still no prospect of an export market for bacon pigs. Britain had, however, agreed to take New Zealand porker pigs in a carcase weight range of GO to 1201bs. As yet there was. no indication of quantity or price, but it was confidently anticipated that their own Government would continue the commandeer at f.o.b. for all porkers killed, in excess of local requirements. Should this transpire and the price fixed approximate that of last year, this would afford a stabilising .factor for the local bacon market. Failing this and in spite of any practical application of theoretical forms of planned production. supply and demand must inevitably create wider points of market fluctuation. When the Government lifted the exportable weight of pork to 1201bs producers’ marketing difficulties were in any case greatly relieved. The local market preferred lightweight baconers of from 121 to 1401bs. so with an exportable top weight for pork of 1201bs great flexibility was afforded in catering for one or other of these markets at short notice. Buttermilk fattoners who in past years were mainly catered for by exporters and whose production would approximate upwards of 50,000 baconers annually would now be forced on to the local market for an outlet for their product. While this must have a bearing on local market conditions, this quantity was less than one quarter of local market requirements.

“Although under existing conditions,” concluded Mr Phillips, “one would be presumptive and even foolish to attempt a market forecast as a lead to producers in the preferential production of pork or bacon pigs, on the assumption that the commandeer price is continued for pork, in a spirit of mutual helpfulness I am willing to give it as my opinion that at all killing points which are adjacent to curing factories catering for city trade, baconers to December 31 are likely to be in good demand, while in the case of other handling charges on carcases as opposed to the delivery of live pigs to curing factories would be competitively uneconomic, producers would be well advised not to take their pigs above porker weights.”