BUTTERFAT PAYMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 72, 26 March 1930, Page 19

BUTTERFAT PAYMENTS.

NEW SYSTEM WANTED. TO HELP CHEESE INDUSTRY. Mr. J. P. Kalauglier, secretary of the New Zealand Friesian Association, writes as'follows t In your issue of March 15 you have a paragraph headed "Butterfat Payments," dealing with the question of adopting a new system of payment for milk supplied to. cheese factories. The present system provides for payment on a butterfat basis. This system is most unjust, and at a Conference 5 of Dairy Breed Associations held in Invercargill in December last, it was resolved to circularise all cheese factories in the South Island, asking that payment for milk for , cheese-making 6hould be paid on the system recommended by Mr. P. 0. Yeale, research clieihist, dairy science laboratory, .Hawera. This method retains the present system of butterfat testing, and production in terms of biittertfat is figured exactly as at present. The ratio of casein to fat is determined for each supplier, but this ratio is used not to modify the amount of production, but to produce a differential price for each supplier. Low-testing suppliers having a high casein ratio in their milk would receive a higher price per pound of butterfat in proportion to the superior cheese-yielding, capacity of their milk per pound of butterfat. \ For those suppliers whose casein ratio was the same as the factory' average, the method would be identical with the "straight butterfat" method of payment. Those suppliers whose casein ratio fell below the factory average would be paid a proportionately smaller price per pound of butterfat. The following statement is based upon the milk supplied in September, 1926, to the Tokaora Cheese Factory where Mr. Veale conducted his experimental work, and the average payment for butterfat for that month was 18.52 d.

Casein-fat Payment per lb Milk. ratio. of butterfat. Friesian .... 0.G9 18.52(1 x I.OG Ayrshire ..... 0.66 18.52dx1.0l Jersey 0.59 18.52 d x 0.01 Factory average: 0.63. In actual practice the use of tables and ready reckoners Vould make the calculations quite simple. According to - the above, the payments would be:—Friesian, premium,' 18'.52d x .06, equals l.lld per lb fat; Ayrshire, premium, 18.52 x .01, equals o.lßd per lb fat; Jersey, deduction, 18.52 d x 0.9, equal 1.66 d per lb fat; so that Friesiail milk would be paid 19.63 per 3b fat, Ayrshire milk would be paid 18.70 d per lb fat, and Jersey milk would be paid 16.86 d per lb fat. • - This, .method of payment would almost entirely do away with any injustice to suppliers, since each supplret would be paid for his milk on its actual value for cheese manufacture. . The paragraph in your paper, states:— "Official comment on tlie' question is that until there is a test for casein as easy and accurate as the Babcock test for butterfat, payment on a casein-fat basis is not possible. Departmental trials for case-in-fat have been made for more than one factory, but have had; tov be abandoned :because they were obviously .1 ot providing accurate data. Knowledge of the value of casein is not a new discovery. However, even if : a test were possible which would accurately determine the casein content, the question of whether or not the basis of payment should be altered would' still, in the Departmental view, be a moot question." * '

The Kjeldahl method is recommended-by Mr. P. 0. Yeale for use in testing for the casein content. Mr. Veals says:—"The operation of the casein test is comparatively simple, and can "be rapidly learned by any intelligent man, boy or girl.' The cost, of the apparatus totals £35. y The statement that "Departmental trials for casein-fat have been made for more than one factory, but have had to be abandoned because they were obviously not providing accurate data" refers to the Tariki Dairy Factory, where some 20 years ago the milk samples were tested for caesin by the Hart caesin test, -&nd P a y* ment madd on the fat plus casein-test of the milkr; The Hart casein test is a very tricky one calling for the most exact attention to empirical details, arid giving many unreliable results for no ■ discernible reasons. Tlie Conference of Breed Associations does not ask that payment should be made on a fat-plus-casein method, buch a method would give practically the same results, as payment on a butterfat basis alone. The system of. .payment that is asked for is that,of payment on a butterfat basis with additions or deductions based on the casein-fat ratio of the milk. This method- would be an equitable system, i.e.,. it; would provide payment lor the milk according to its value, for cheesemakings ,i . The conference of dairy breeds asked the Department of Agriculture to carry out in conjunction with a cheese factory (.preferably, in a district there was a marked difference in the butterfat test of individual herds), a comparison of the system of payment on butterfat alone, an 1 of the .system recommended by Mr . Veale, that>is,' of payment on a butterfat basis with additions or: deductions based on the casein-fat ratio. So far the Department of Agriculture has declined to accede to this proposal. The action or rather inaction of.thejDepartment in this matter,is, most regiet table,,-and is .causing agrave concern -o owners of Ayrshire? Fnesian and Shoi thorn dairy , herds all over (the Dominion. New Zealand is the- only,, country in the world where high-testing mainlv used for the manufacture of cheese, and New Zealand cheese is. practical y the onty cheese that suffers from "openness. Canadian cheese made almost wholly fiom Ayrshire and Friesian milk commands higher price by_reason of its supemL nuality on the London market. _ Stand ardisation of milk for cheese making will not improve the quality of New Zealand cheese The remedy is obvious—cheese shopld'be made from the milk of the lowertesting breeds, Ayrshire, and Shorthorn, and then New Zealand chee.e makers will get that extra million pounds sterling that a.t. present they , are.losing. No cheese factory in Southland is manufacturing cheese.- from standardised mi >• Mv T Murray, Dominion secretary, -in SaddrSS by him land Dairy Factory Managers Con.fgen^. to y » » Siii St. -tagdta ? _fo o « S Kd 1 Vit that Swftltad cheese has contributed .largely m standintr solidly on a foundation which is beinfe slowlv but surely' undermined by those who have, followed on different lines. _ Tf ,v tiriie that justice was done m this matter, and the Ayrshire. Friesian am Shorthorn Dairy Breed Associations wiil use.their utmos't endeavours to get system ypf payment for milk ier; ?h?escmaking.' "' * _ ■