Mr. Rossasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much would be added to the cost of production of a bacon pig, a gallon of milk, and a dozen hen eggs if the price of barley were to be increased by £9.50 per tonne, under winter conditions.
§ Mr. Bishop, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 17th April 1978], gave the following revised information:
The effects on production costs would depend on a number of factors, but at current levels of efficiency, assuming no change in the proportion of barley used in the feed rations, proportionate changes in prices of other cereals and cereal byproducts but constant prices for non-cereal ingredients, the average increase in production costs for pigs and poultry is estimated to be equivalent to about £2.60 for a bacon pig, and 1.4p per dozen eggs; the additional estimated cost of producing a gallon of milk under winter feeding conditions would be about 1–6p per gallon.