5 - Livestock

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5. LIVESTOCK

Both the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Food wished to know what proportion of all households kept livestock, and what contribution the livestock made to food supplies during a twelve month period,

At every household visited, regardless of whether it had a garden or not, it was ascertained if livestock were kept. If livestock was kept owners were asked in the case of fowl how many they kept, how many they had killed in the last 12 months, how many eggs the fowl had laid in the last week. If rabbits or pigs were kept owners were asked how many they kept and how many had been killed in the last 12 months. If goats were kept owners were asked how many gallons of milk they had received from the goats in the last 12 months, and if bees were kept how many pounds of honey had been recovered from hives in the last 12 months.

14% of the sample kept livestock. This is the equivalent of 1, 330, 000 households in England and Wales.

The following tables show the proportion of houses with livestock which kept particular kinds of livestock at the time of interview.

14. Proportion of households with particular kinds of livestock

	No. keeping livestock at present	% of all live stock owners	% of all households
Laying hens	367	72	10
Other fowl	293	58	8
Ducks	53	10	1
Geese	17	3	-
Rabbits	152	30	4
Pigs	30	6	1
Goats	5	1	-
Bees	13	3	-
Others	8	1	-

Only laying hens, other fowl, and rabbits are to are kept to any considerable extent.

All livestock owners were asked a series of questions to make an estimate of food production from live stock but only designed give data kinds of livestock mentioned above were number sufficient to permit of these estimates being made.

15. 16.

LAYING HENS

15. Number of laying hens kept

No. keeping laying hens at present	367
Number kept	2,636
Average per household keeping hens	7
No. who had kept hens in last 12 months	376
No. able to state average number kept	293
No. of hens kept by them	2,439
Average per house	8

16. Frequency distribution of laying hens

No. of laying hens	No. of households	%
1	22	6
2	40	11
3	46	13
4	45	12
5	26	7
6	46	13
7	22	6
8	24	6
9	15	4
10	18	5
11 and over	63	17
Unclassified	1	-

More than four-fifths of all households keeping laying hens had 10 or less, and nearly half had 5 or less.

17. Number of laying hens killed in last 12 months

		% of all houses
No. of houses at which hens were killed in last 12 months	115	3
No. of houses at which no hens were killed in last 12 months	187	5
Unclassified	74	2
No keeping hens in last 12 months	376	10

Out of the 115 livestock Owners who had killed hens in the last 12 months 110 were able to say that they had killed 467 altogether; this gives an average of 4 hens killed by each of the 110.

18. Number of eggs laid last week

		% of all houses
No. of houses at which eggs were laid last week	303	8
No. of houses at which no eggs were laid last week	46	1
Unclassified	27	1
No. of houses keeping hens at present (Sept. 1944)	367	10

At 293 households it was known that their hens had laid a total of 4, 518 eggs in the preceding week, giving an average of 15 in those houses. It should be remembered, however, that at this time the laying season was coming to a close.

19. Number of Eggs preserved in the last 12 months

		%of all houses
No. of houses at which eggs were preserved in the last 12 months	104	3
No. of houses at which no eggs were preserved in the last 12 months	191	5
Unclassified	81	2
No. keeping laying hens in last 12 months	376	10

90 of those who had preserved eggs were able to say that they had preserved 9, 245 altogether, giving an average of’102 for each of the 90 households.

The validity of the figures given in the four preceding tables is affected by the high proportion of households unclassified in each table.

None of those keeping hens kept them on the battery system.

Other Fowl

Other fowl includes drakes, cocks, pullets, turkeys, etc,

20. No. keeping other fowl

No. keeping other fowl at present	293
No. kept	2,368
Average per house	8
No. keeping other fowl in last 12 months	298
No. able to state average number kept	171
No. of fowl kept by them	1,377
Average number kept	8

21. Frequency distribution of other fowl

No. of fowl	No. of households	%
1	34	12
2	32	11
3	27	9
4	20	7
5	17	6
6	24	8
8	22	7
9	15	5
10	15	5
11 and over	70	24
Unclassified	1	-

Three quarters of all households keeping other fowl had 10 or less.

22. No. of other fowls killed 12 months

		% of all houses
No of houses at which other fowl were killed in last 12 months	90	2
No. of houses at which no other fowl were killed in last 12 months	143	4
Unclassified	65	2
No. keeping other fowl in last 12 months	298	8

87 of those who had killed other fowl had killed 359 in the 12 months, an average of 4 per house.

17.

RABBITS

23. No. keeping Rabbits

No. keeping rabbits at present	152
No. of rabbits kept	858
Average per house	5
No. keeping rabbits in last 12 months	153
No. able to state average number of rabbits kept	105
No. kept by them	638
Average per house	6

24. No. of rabbits killed in last 12 months

		% of all houses
No. of houses at which rabbits were killed in last 12 months	64	2
No. of houses at which no rabbits were killed in last 12 months	66	2
Unclassified	23
No. keeping rabbits in last 12 months	153	4

59 households killed 494 rabbits in the last 12 months, an average of 8 per house.

REPLACEMENTS

All livestock keepers were asked to what extent they reared their own replacements.

Percentage of replacements reared by owner

	%	All		¼ to ¾		None
		No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Laying hens	376	106	28	27	7	243	65
Other fowl	298	82	27	14	5	202	68
Ducks	54	20	-	3	-	31	-
Geese	17	6	-	3	-	8	-
Rabbits	153	67	44	5	4	81	53
Pigs	30	10	-	-	-	20	-
Goats	5	4	-	-	-	1	-
Bees	13	3	-	1	-	9	-
Others	8	3	-	-	-	5	-

Details about livestock other than laying hens, other fowl and rabbits are given in Appendix 4.

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