21. Mr. Vaneasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will encourage corn merchants and compounders of animal feeding stuffs to market a reliable balancer meal guaranteed by biological tests, which pig producers could mix with their home-grown cereals, so cheapening the costs of producing pig meat and leading to a saving in the charge on the taxpayer.
Mr. AmoryI am assured that there is an ample supply of balancer meals in a form suitable for pigs and other livestock, and I have no reason to doubt their reliability. No system of biological tests of proteins in feeding stuffs has yet been developed but work on this has been arranged by the Agricultural Research Council.
Mr. VaneIs my right hon. Friend aware that while there are a number of balancer meals in which farmers have great confidence, there are others on the market which do not command the same confidence, and that if he can improve this situation he will be doing a great deal, through making better use of homegrown feeding stuffs, to bring about economy in imported feeding stuffs, thus saving foreign currency?
Mr. AmoryWould not my hon. Friend agree with me that the balancer rations which command confidence are those which are likely to be sold and that those which do not command confidence are not likely to find a sale at all?