OAT THE LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 222, 17 September 1915, Page 11

OAT THE LAND.

Agricultural, Pastoral and Dairy Interests. \

COME DAIRYING PROBLEMS. | THE VIEWS OF AN AUTHORITY. j : WINTER MILKING— HOI/SING— FODDER—CRI IPS-—CHEESE. Winter milking ha:- boon pirshed into, th, forefront of attention by the, recent - aroity of winter butter. Winter dairying i- nut popular. It pos-' sosses serous disadvantages, hut that there is money in i: is undoubted. j "If I h.tJ plenty nf money, an.l >vere going i" lor dairying." said Mr. Middle-1 ton. manager of the Canterbury Central | Dairy t irnpany. to the "Now Zealand] Farmer representative. "1 would take; tip winter dairying. 1 would make it my 'lobby. on think it you',,! pay? "1 am satisfied it would. But it must' be ,:.-,ne on proper lines. The cows, must be ■warmly housed, well fed with j cr,>ps gmvtn on the farm, and given 1 decent care." Would the results warrant a farmer' facing the disadvantages of milking in I winter time* "No. ''~•■ conditions existing on | summer •- farms are unsuited to w.n'er .ijirymc. The stock must be housed, fed :n their houses, given reasonable exercise, but otherwise h.ive no j nii t-" 1 So through. The milker, morn- j ins *ni evening, will enter a warm com-' fortable shed to do hLs work. I ami satisfied t-hat if the herd we,e run on these nes the work w-nr.l.i not he I severe \ i-ip'easant, and the cows would! yield jr-jfclv anything less than in sum , mer nn i.ii.ms. They can do it in Canada Why no: here' In Canada. 1 if they id not house their slock all the' wmte- they would have no co-.vs left, alive in the spring." S"oh-.-lv i s taking it up in New Zea ■ landT "They wan: a lead. If somebody will! make the beginning, and prove it successful, others will soon follow." Canterbury Central Company, for in I stance, might run a mode! winter dairy- ' I don't thinTc so. if we were to teli o;;r supplier*! that butter-fat, instead oi ben;. -o\. 1 :; next seas .n. would be 1 2 her-au.-e we were going to launo.i cv: int - a wint-r milling farm they would s.l\. No, thanks, give v.* the ] z: ' Bui il uoiil! pay a profit ',' "Ah. peth-ips not at first. There are var --is ; ttlt- difficulties likely to he en-i eou-r-s-r i ti a new undertaking of thai Km . 1 cows might not take we:! to Tnr ,-,..- tig in the fir-t -eason."' WHY i-AKMER.'s DO NT WINTERMILK. "You would not pay enough extra tor winter butter-fat to make it a good prs--po.-ttion?"' suggested the journalist. ."•;-. Middleun a.im.tt.-d it. "U.d Mor.ige." he sa..l. "has made that im-ro--.b!,-. ["'.l e.ve you an instance ot the position. It i» a common experience | ]*?:,-: r die winter arrives for u.s lo be ffsk-vi"rn- rrfneers to "rpinte fnPTir n price ior a certain quantity of butter, to be st ~--s-j .-• their account ani delivered th. iu;h 'he winter as required. W' | tnu-t then quote summer price.--. If we t-, -c very deir next winter we mu-t charge y. 'i aeo»rdirr;ly." he will go oti an-1 place hi? order >,th some exporting fir:, wiir'i [irnbah-v never, in the or < "*r> » '<}■ '---'P '"> tie local maiket i vi n i .-.:_ re poind. In till- wnier t* .Vil a- a *..-p -.' ,-n butter bought for stonig has -iven back £l.'""iO. That is ten tt-mrunc There i- n zro, er in Chris; church now who bought on forward terms a large stock of a certain factory's butter with the factory's brand on. and is now selling it at 2d per lb less, than the same bran-i in other shops. With such things possible, very lucrative re turns from winter dairying are impo,Then on what ground* can it be advocated ; "Winter dairvin<r. by warm housing an.l fodder feeding. wc-old lengthen the lactation peri-id. and increa.se the profit in that way. The folder pro wing would increase the carrying capacity of the lani. It is w-el: known that crops yield better I! they are allowed to develop, and are then cut. tlian if constantly grazed down by -t-sk. Lucerne, we know -rows luxuriantly in most dairy ing dl«"ncl.s. 1- makes ~|eal milking fee!, cnher green nr a-- silage, or as hay With this and root-, all in ampie sm'.nlv the VK-1-! of a herd can he greatly increase i ani i-n-rthened. By feeding roots irr-ncliatelv alter milking, and | •dvng -■..id -wr-t hiv ju»t hefivre milking, the lee! flavour trouble can be avoided." WINTER OITTIT VANISHING. The qie-tron m- raised ns tn whether the winter make of butter is increasing a', the. sit,- speed as the summer nut*™"h is quite the reverse." said Mr. Middlftf.n. "In our own case our winter sup-.iv nf milk or cream is only one-halt or one-third what it W-.S eighteen years a-r. (nir total output for the year has increased enormously, but the winter supplies have almost vanished. Cold Storage has done that. It has marie summer cream almost as valuable as winter -ream, and the farmers naturally have , hosen the former. Years ago we cud -ne 1 for winter butter-fat | a, against"Od for that produced in summer and winter milking was then rather popular. At one time our winter supply was almost half as much as that I of summer." „ T -c-n-c, I CHEESE. PIG.?, AND BY-PRODUCTS. Mr Middleton does not think tne inward flight of cbeese prices will lessen tic keeping of pas. The meal will be used to fortify die whey. He thinks also there will be no decrease in tne rearing of calves for the dairy or the range. "Butter.'' he said, "will be in the ascendant again before long. It is obvious that while the war lasts cheese will be in very strong demand, because a •soldier can carry "cheese and bread in his pocket for a ion-: time, while he could not cad-.- butter And no doubt it is ten r, ,i':,sl,ing food. But when ihe war .- ..-.,■: T . .. :! hay- acquired the cheese ba ~: •A ~- I.k.elv. It is more probable they w.i. ... ~„ r. "of it. That Ls the usual res it .t -n v,,u are restricted to one cbs- : tood ' r.-.c - ,eese factories have paid sup plier.- ;i> high as 1/6 per pound. "W That i* a high price. But I uwd suppliers decLue they would

not part with their skimmed milk for less than 2d extra. They make a good niargin I>y bhe pigs and calves."' Casein, condensed milk, dried milk, sugar of milk -will these things affect butter? There are prophecies in the air of New Zealand going out of butter. "1 don't think so. There is a strong future for butter. These hy-products are only small matter.-. Dried milk and . milk sugar consume a lot of fuel, and there can't be enough profit in them to i make them serious itvnpetitors. Be | -side?, many dairy fanners would rather' feed it to their pigs and calves than sell . their skimmed milk and whey for casein, j Or for marking skimmed-milk cheese!: "We have been ,-onsidering that. Inn - I ing a visit to Australia 1 made some in-I quirics as to the best way to utilise the skimmed milk. No doubt while cheese I is so badly wanted we ought to consider j any means of increasing the output. I jam not sure tbe inquiry for skimmed j milk cheese would be very large, and the I results of my inquiries in Australia! rather favoured making casein. Fuller I information, however, has vet to reach