LAND, STOCK & CROPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 54, Issue 93, 30 January 1934, Page 7

LAND, STOCK & CROPS

NOTES AND COMMENTS. (By "The Tramp"). Opinions emphasising the necessity for greater co-ordination in research work in the dairy industry of the Dominion as one of the first steps to lift the price of New Zealand butter back to a remunerative level, are strongly supported by a leading authority in the Auckland Province.

"Of recent years many statements have been made in New Zealand giving reasons why Danish butter brings a price so much higher than that of New Zealand on the British market," stated this authority.- "Many of these statements have not been very sincere in their endeavour to 'explain away' the almost consistent difference in price.

"During the last few weeks wo-have seen our butter prices gradually slip back until they have possibly reached the lowest figures realised in the history of the industry. It is no wonder that we have an authority of the experience of Mr Bernard Tripp, of Timaru, advocating a co-ordination of the research departments in New Zealand and the freeing of them from Government control so that tho primary industries can he guided along sound lines in the improvement of their butter, cheese and other products, demanded by the competition in the world's markets to-day. » "Research work for our dairying industry has made considerable progress since the Dairy Research Institute was set up at Palmerston North, but the institute's value to the dairying industry lias been considerably discounted by the fact that all quality improvements must be made by steps which the Department of Agriculture considers sufficient progress for the time being. To get out of step and make drastic improvements does not remunerate any butter or cheese manufacturing unit, as, under existing marketing conditions there 'is practione price-level for all produce carrying out national brand, the fernleaf.

"It is time, however, that all concerned in the dairying industry, from those at the head of it doAvn to the men who are milking the cows, paid more, attention to the findings of our research departments, for along no other lines will we make the progress essential to hold our share of the markets and obtain improved iprices. Research must have a free hand and its conclusions respected, not doubted, and put into practical operation for the betterment of our manufactured products.

"The Danes owe tho greatest part of their success in the British market to the fact that for the past 50 years they have marketed one brand of butter, and they have year after year improved upon-the quality of that one brand. That brand is consistent; it has a flavour which is appreciated by the buying public, a flavour which can be tasted even if spread thin, a necessity in many a British household to-day. "Wo are apt to consider, for we have been told so often enough, that our butter is quite as good. We use it ad lib in our own households and of course wo can taste the flavour if we put on plenty of it. When it gets to the British consumer, he finds, especially in the middle of winter, that, it will not spread at all and he cannot taste the flavour. For the most part it is not there. We have 'improved' our manufacturing methods by deodorising the cream to remove undesirable flavours, and in doing so have succeeded in turning out a flavourless butter of a type that the buying public in Great Britain do not want. The consumers are the best judges of what they want and they evidently are prepared to give the extra price for Danish butter. "The Danes have been years in building up a goodwill in the provincial towns of England and Scotland which is difficult for us to combat. London, which tho Empire butter-pro-ducing countries have consistently flooded with their produce, does not seem to interest them. They have been satisfied that they*" have a hotter system of marketing by regularly supplying, almost daily, the quantities which tho districts served 'by the east coast ports from Leith down to Harwich will readily absorb and the happy result for them has been that there never is any accumulated stock of Danish butter to drag their market down. "But London is the index of our prices. If stocks of New Zealand and Australian butters accumulate there down comes our price all over Great Britain hud stocks have so often accumulated during the last few years that it is no wonder our prices have suffered to the extent they have. We truly need an improved marketing system to raise our prices, but it must be built on goodwill, more regular arrival of supplies—in fact, on the Danish system as a model. "Times such as we are passing through are the opportune moments for putting our house in order. Research must be given the fullest opportunity so that dairy farmers can profit by it in the management of their dairy herds and milking plants. It should become the slogan in the dairying industry as a sure means of raising the standard of the products for which we seek a market in Great Britain."

An interesting fact concerning Bawdsey Henrietta, a Suffolk mare bred by Sir Cuthbert Quilter and exported to Australia in 1901, is reported by her owner, Mr J. MacCullum Smith, of Perth, Western Australia. The mare is now 32 years old, and last year, on account of her age, she was pensioned off and put to run in a paddock with a Suffolk stallion and other horses. In April she astonished her owner by dropping an exceptionally well-develop-ed colt foal.

It is being suggested in Canterbury that the lambing should be later as the early killed lambs mostly strike a poor market. North Island works for the past few years have been rushing shipments Home to catch the Christmas market, but this can be overdone as the average Britisher still prefers the good old roast beef, turkey, or goose for his Christmas dinner so that the demand for lamb is limited though the first of the new season's lamb 110 doubt raises good prices. There is therefore something to bz said in

favour of the late lambing proposal of Canterbury farmers. The season for lamb in Britain starts about April, when farm lambs come on the market though these do not come into coinpetition with frozen, but later in July and August lambs from purely grassfed ewes and small hill lambs in 1932 were down to within a penny of prime Canterbury and there is no comparison as to the quality of the meat.