With the exception of small quantities of frozen egg pulp exported to the United Kingdom, the production of eggs and table poultry in New Zealand is entirely for the home market. Poultry production is confined mainly to eggs and table birds, a high proportion of the latter being laying birds at the end of their productive life. Specialised table poultry production has started, however, and is developing rapidly. There is also some raising of ducks for eggs or table purposes, and the rearing of turkeys for the Christmas trade.
Although a substantial proportion of the total eggs in shell consumed by the public is produced mainly by household poultry keepers, commercial poultry farmers produce most of the eggs sold by retailers. These larger producers market their eggs through egg floors, and so distribute them to retailers. Commercial poultry farmers breed and rear most of the birds in household and sideline flocks. Though the number of commercial poultry flocks is not large, their influence on the pattern of poultry production is most important.
The development of poultry production has been somewhat slow until recent years, but proportionate to the population increase. In 1963–64 New Zealanders bought nearly 28,400,000 dozen eggs, according to the annual report of the Poultry Board, and this figure compared with the sales of 10 years ago showed an increase of 140 per cent in that period.
| Numbers of Poultry (Including Fowls, Ducks, Turkeys, and Geese) | ||
| 1906 | 3,187,669 | 3·6 birds per head of population |
| 1916 | 3,465,638 | 3·2 birds per head of population |
| 1926 | 3,781,145 | 2·8 birds per head of population |
| 1936 | 3,911,715 | 2·6 birds per head of population |
| 1951 | 4,199,590 | 2·2 birds per head of population |
| 1956 | 4,485,571 | 2·1 birds per head of population |
| 1961 | 4,525,397 | 1·9 birds per head of population |
| Proportions of Types of Poultry, 1956 and 1961 | |||
| Fowls | Ducks | Geese | Turkeys |
| 4,160,424 | 210,718 | 60,938 | 53,491 |
| 4,183,563 | 202,245 | 73,457 | 66,132 |
(The figures quoted above are obtained whenever a population census is taken.)
Statistics obtained in 1956 indicate that of the total poultry population approximately 60 per cent of the birds were in the North Island. The Auckland province has the highest poultry population in the country, about 37 per cent, the largest concentration being in the vicinity of the City of Auckland. Canterbury province, with many flocks around Christchurch, ranks second with nearly 20 per cent. Other popular areas for poultry are the Tauranga district, Gisborne, Hastings, Wanganui, Levin, Nelson, Timaru, Oamaru, Taieri, and Invercargill. The largest commercial poultry farmers have flocks of 8,000 or 10,000 birds – the minimum-size flock considered economical for egg production being 2,000 birds.
Commercial poultry farmers and household poultry keepers depend largely on crossbred pullets for egg production, White Leghorns, Australorps, and Rhode Island Reds being used as the basic pure breeds from which to produce first-cross laying birds. The mass mating of breeding birds to produce laying pullets is the system commonly practised. Modern methods of poultry breeding based on present day knowledge of poultry genetics have been adopted by a few poultry breeders, including some of the largest breeders in the country, who are trying to raise the economic qualities of their pure breeds and to find high-producing crossbred birds for distribution to commercial egg producers. One group of breeders is employing a geneticist to evaluate the results of the breeding work.
A large proportion of laying flocks is maintained on the intensive system, being housed throughout the year in open-fronted lean-to type of laying sheds. In recent years different types of poultry housing have been introduced, including double-decker houses, full-span gable houses, and sawtooth houses. These are now being used for the larger units of laying stock of up to 1,000 layers in one pen. The practice of housing birds in laying-cage units has gained in popularity, particularly in the Canterbury Province. In the main the birds are housed in the Californian type of laying-cage unit, but some threetier, automatically operated, laying batteries from the United Kingdom have been established in the South Island.
An egg-production survey by the Department of Agriculture, which covered over 12 months in 1960–61, dealt with 120 commercial flocks totalling approximately 220,000 birds. The results gave an average of 194 eggs per bird, calculated on a hen-day basis. Flocks varying in size were chosen from the more important poultry production areas in both islands. No later egg-production survey has been made (1965).
Until about 1959 scant attention had been paid to table poultry production as a specialised aspect of poultry husbandry. In the past, table poultry offered to the public has been almost entirely of culled birds from commercial egg flocks and surplus male birds. Attention is now being given to the production of “broilers”, based on modern housing and management. These birds reach a 3–3½ lb weight at 10–12 weeks, and are being produced from stock specially bred for quick growth as well as from crossbred cockerels of laying strains. Broilers are becoming popular with the public and the demand for continuous supplies is increasing. Marked progress in the killing, processing, and marketing of table birds has been made since the Second World War.
Wheat, wheat offals, barley, and maize are the main feeds used for poultry mashes and grain mixtures, while meatmeal and meat and bone meal (ranging from 45–60 per cent protein) are the sources of animal protein used. Vegetable protein concentrates are not usually included in poultry mashes. All poultry feeds used are produced in New Zealand except for a proportion of the wheat which is imported from Australia. The systems of feeding employed are dry mash and grain, all-mash, and pellet feeding, the majority of poultry producers purchasing ready-mixed mashes, which are readily available.
Most poultry diseases commonly found in other poultry-producing countries have been recorded in New Zealand. The important exceptions, however, are fowl pest (Newcastle disease), and infectious bronchitis, which so far have not been diagnosed. A strict embargo on the importation of hatching eggs and live or dead poultry from countries other than Australia has been enforced since 1953 as a protection against the possible introduction of these diseases. Post mortem and field advisory services are given by the Department of Agriculture.
The Department of Agriculture has field officers (poultry instructors) stationed in both islands at centres of heaviest poultry production, and advice is available to commercial poultry producers on all aspects of poultry husbandry and disease control. In addition, the Department has a poultry unit at which practical problems of poultry farming such as feeding, management, and breeding, are studied. The information obtained is made available to the poultry industry.
The poultry industry administration is in the hands of the New Zealand Poultry Board and the New Zealand Egg Marketing Authority, the latter being the statutory body in control of the marketing of eggs.
by Frederick Christopher Bobby, N.D.A., N.D.P. (1898–1962), late Chief Advisory Officer (Poultry), Department of Agriculture.