asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that the recent change in grading specification for pigs delivered to bacon factories has resulted in a serious loss to farmers, without any great improvement in the quality of Irish bacon, either for export or on the home market; and what action he proposes to take in the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Grading of Pigs.
5.
The change in bacon pig grading standards was essential in view of the fact that the very competitive and selective export market requires bacon only of a uniformly high quality.
Is the Minister aware that the only farmers who can make any profit on pigs are those who can sell them to a dealer, who may have some other way of selling them, or to bacon factories who want a particular type of pig or a number of pigs in a week? Anyone who sells them to a bacon factory is, perhaps, losing £'s per pig.
It would not be easy to reply during Question Time to that sort of scattered supplementary question. I am not aware that all the allegations the Deputy has made are accurate.
The Minister can be assured they are.
Would the Minister say that it is not true that to arrive at the standards set under the new grading system, progeny-tested pigs for breeding are an essential prerequisite and can he do anything to expand the number of progeny-tested pigs available to breeders?
We are making considerable strides in that direction. I think I could say that for next year 80 per cent of the boars to be distributed to the county committees of agriculture will be Large Whites from attested stock, and roughly about 35 to 40 per cent will be Landrace. That is a considerable advance. I am prepared to concede that when you make an effort to improve standards by as good a grading process as you can devise, these changes are bound to have results here and there which will prove unsatisfactory and perhaps in some cases irritating. As I explained on previous occasions, the attempt has been made in three stages and if they create some inconvenience or some loss here and there, well, nothing worthwhile is achieved in a matter of this nature without such. I am prepared to concede it may have arisen in this case but certainly every action that could be taken by us to avoid such a happening has been taken.
While the Minister appears to be conscious of the urgent necessity for pig progeny-tested boars, would he agree with me that the supply of progeny-tested sows is wholly inadequate and would the Pigs and Bacon Commission not charge themselves with the responsibility of procuring a supply of progeny-tested sows of either breed so that sows distributed to the Pigs and Bacon Marketing Board would be progeny-tested and thus mated with progeny-tested boars which may become available in the next year or two?
Of course, the effort at progeny-testing is not only directed towards providing boars but it is also directed towards providing sows. It might not be quite impossible but it rarely ever happens that you can, on the progeny-testing side, have everything just in order before you make your decision to raise the standard of the pig that is being provided for the bacon factory.
But you will import some progeny-tested pigs, if necessary?
Yes, we have.
Question No. 6.
Would it not have been better to have waited until we had an adequate supply of progeny-tested sows before toughening up the grading requirements?
I always find, in every field, that if you were to wait until everything is in order and will go like clockwork, you would never reach that stage and never take the decisions which are so often vital.
Of course, this is not the Minister's difficulty; it is the farmers' difficulty.
I have a slight interest in it outside my official position. I like to put things like that mildly, not boastfully.