Vol. 180 No. 7
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that farmers in County Wexford have suffered a cut in price for pigs; and if he will state the standard weight live weight which would enable them to secure the maximum price free from such reductions.
18.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state the minimum guaranteed price live weight for (a) grade A pigs and (b) grade B pigs.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I will take Questions Nos. 17 and 18 together.
The guaranteed minimum prices for Grade A and Grade B 1 bacon pigs are fixed on a dead-weight basis, the minimum prices being 230s. per cwt. dressed carcase weight for Grade A, and 225s. per cwt. for Grade B 1. Grade A pigs must be within the carcase weight range 127 lb. to 168 lb., inclusive, and Grade B 1 pigs within the range 169 lb. to 175 lb., inclusive, there being prescribed fat measurements also in each case.
Farmers in County Wexford, as elsewhere, are assured of the foregoing minimum prices for bacon pigs of the required standard. The prices for pigs below that standard are affected by the lack of demand for bacon from such pigs on the home and export markets.
Could the Minister not transmit those weights into light weights? That is what was asked in the question.
It does not make any difference. The grading of the pigs can be determined only on slaughter.
It is for the guidance of the people concerned that I want to know what the weights are in live weight. Surely the Minister can tell me that?
The prices which I have quoted apply to the two weights which I have described. These weights can be determined only after the animal has been slaughtered.
Could the Minister not give me some indication of what the current minimum price is?
The current price is the dead weight price.
