The Pig Industry

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20494, 10 May 1938, Page 13 (Supplement)

The Pig Industry

The Importance of Ordinary Things.

(By M. J SCOTT, 8.A., B Sc , Superintendent of the Pig Indoitry.) Further progress in the pig industry is often sought through the channels of some new practice or modification of an existing one, that will put the industry on the map. The use of only one breed, the feeding of balanced rations, the use of pedigree stock, and many other recommendations are frequently made, and where adopted give good results. These recommendations, good in themselves, are often most effective because they are the cause of better attention being given to pigs. It is difficult to advise “better attention,” and doubly difficult to listen to the advice, and for these reasons few are rude enough, or bold enough, to talk about the neglect that pigs are subject to. This existing neglect of pigs is nevertheless known, and freely admitted by most people, and it would seem that its remedy is to be found through a change in the outlook of people rather than through an increase in our knowledge of pig science. THE PIG A SCAVENGER One of the most important facts that determines our outlook towards pigs is that they have been looked upon as scavengers, and the scavenger idea has been allowed to swing full circle. As a result the pig is treated as no other animal is. It is fed with waste products from all sources, it is forced to live in its own filth, it is given a minimum of attention. Pride of ownership is evident with horses, cattle, sheep and almost every other animal, but until recently it was an admission of inferiority to have any interest in pigs. This lack of interest has resulted in pigs being asked to show profits under impossible conditions. Houses are nonexistent or useless as a protection from the weather; sanitation, made necessary through confinement, is never considered; conveniences of the attendant do not exist. This results in a national loss through rejects at the Works, deaths on the farm, a loss of self-respect of the man who has to attend to them, and the entire absence of opportunity of the pig to earn profits. It speaks volumes for the efficiency of the pig that in spite of all the handicaps to which this scavenger idea subjects him he still earns enough profit to keep people interested in him. BETTER HOUSES THE FIRST STEP Pig producers will not be flattered at the commonplace suggestion that the provision of better housing is the mainspring of all progress in the industry. It throws a responsibility on the wrong person; it lacks any element of adventure and will be refuted by all those who have already attended to it. Nevertheless since the total loss to the industry through disease and death is somewhere in the neighbourhood of ten per cent, of the whole industry, those who have eliminated this loss completely must admit that for every one so placed there must be someone else who loses twice as much as the average, and that those who suffer average losses constitute the greatest proportion of producers. The provision of good houses and accommodation at a cost of somewhere between £ls to £2O for every sow kept would absorb a capital expenditure of somewhere between one and two million pounds, and would be the chief means of saving an annual waste of close on a quarter of a million pounds. It looks like a venture that could be financed by the most conservative of investors.

The Importance of Ordinary Things

Until accommodation is good there is little object in pouring effort into the production of good weaners and three months’ stores, or in using better pigs, or in growing reserves of feed to supplement the dairy by-products. These and other aspects all require attention, but it is best to mend the holes in the bag before beginning to fill it. THE PIG CLUB MOVEMENT Since this article seeks to emphasise the importance of people rather than pigs in improving the industry, reference can be made here, with advantage, to the Pig Club movement that has swept through New Zealand during the last eight months. Already over two, hundred and fifty communities have either formed Clubs or have taken steps to do so. This movement is essentially valuable to the industry, for the reason that it creates an organisation that can speak with one voice on the needs of the industry, and by so doing should be able to create sufficient public interest to ensure that Pai’liament and other organised bodies that shape the policy of the New Zealand producer, will do the right thing when asked. Many within the movement are content to come in just for the immediate advantage obtained from doing so. Large numbers who stay out do so because they fail to see any immediate advantage to themselves as a result of coming in. Neither section is wholly right. Both miss the importance of united effort. THE VALUE OF COMMON KNOWLEDGE The national character of thinking that what we do concerns only ourselves and is of no importance to anyone else, is very praiseworthy and modest, and can be offered as a reasonable excuse for keeping out of public affairs. Nevertheless the whole industry is made up of fifty thousand producers, and if the progress made by each one were common to all, the industry would be perfect within a year. The non - spectacular commonplace improvement that is made on the smallest farm ought to be traded to all the neighbours, and made available to the public. The establishment of Pig Clubs provides a facility for bringing this about. The industry will not be made 100 per cent, good by the adoption of some spectacular research finding, or by instructional or advisory service, or by the introduction of regulations, half so quickly as it would be by the thought and attention to humdrum trivialities by every producer, be he great or small, amateur or expert. The commonplace triviality performed in fifty thousand different places, and directed towards the same end, is capable of achieving very much more than can be achieved by the best of regulations or by the latest findings of research. The “Sentimental Bloke” must have been thinking that way when he wrote the following lines—- “ on’ the bloke oo tries, To grab the flamin’ stars from out the skies, Qoes crook on life an’ calls the ivorld a cheat, An’ tramples on the daisies at ’is feet.”