THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21146, 23 April 1934, Page 9

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

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to rue suitor of tub phrss.

e;v—ln taking over the management! Mlie Dairy Produce Control Board the Government has shown some fore-1 sigh*, and is apparently acting on a| general plan to meet one of the most | serious troubles that New Zealand has £VC r had. The proposed quota on wiirv produce is alarming enough, but C'tvery term of foodstuffs shipped to ' 'f'reat Bi'-itciin will be so restricted and 'it is not w '' ;ll ' n t!l ° Power of those controlling the separate branches of ■ production to meet these situations,! so there is nothing for it but for the! Government to take charge for a time.) Your leading article calls it statesman-1 like boldness. "Wonderful," exclaims i Mr C. P. Agar, a factory manager, who | is also a member of the Dairy Board; j -(hen he proceeds to belabour the man-: ■ :;igemcnt of the whole dairying ino'us-I ■try, from his own board downward:-. Where ha? he been all this time'.' : Mr Colin Mcintosh blames home separation for the decline in quality and blames the decline in quality for the low prices at Home. The other day we had a long, specially written article on the same absurd lines, but ihe writer made his case still worse by blaming home separation for the falling off in cheese quality. Do these! people realise what it would mean to •'the main dairying districts in the : North Island if tons of milk had to be -carted to factories every day or twice daily, especially in a rainy season? In 'some herds there are several hundred cows, and the milk has to be separated twice daily. Horns separation and delay in collecting are being coupled as evils, but the two are wide apart: in tact, the immense saving by home separation leaves no excuse for anything but a daily service. The Dairy Board has been made the 'tcapegoat for a lot of imaginary sins and some real ones, too. Its attitude towards quotas was an obvious mistake, but it was well meant, and, indeed, was shared by many outside the dairying business. Before ever quotas were proposed, the position of dairymen had become desperate, through no fault of their own or the Dairy Board. Some aver that it is the poor quality of our butter which is widening the gap between Danish and our own. but all the fresh butters sold in Britain bring vastly higher prices than those which have to be prepared for a long journey, though the last may be in reality the best. Arc we to believe that prices of 90s and upwards for local butters are entirely the reward of careful management and the prices of 70s downwards are the result of slovenly work? If quality had that much to do with it then there would be more difference in price as between one exporting country and another, or between the output of a well-run factory and one that is not. Certain people at Home like fresh dairy butter, and will pay well for it. but there is too much imported and not enough money to pay a decent price for it. ■ The cheese position is different. There has been a serious falling off in quality for a long time, and here the Government has a fine chance to put its own house in order, for the Dairy Division has been credited with a 'large shore of this deterioration, and has bren a hindrance to the Dairy Board , i' l its efforts to improve the'quality. T !i? Dairy Division is also more to kb'amc than the board for mismanage--W"nt and wastefulness in factories. ■■> for (he individual dairyman, he I- come in for a lot of unstinted e'rine. There are plenty of regulatxns to control him. but it seems that r.rnc of the factories has had the backben? io enforce them, so that now the careful man finds he has been getting no more than tvs careless neighbour. Ihere is no need to send out an army •cj inspectors and instructors. In■.s:mc!ions could be printed and displayed in every dairy: then each sample of cream could be put under searching tests and these would show where the inspectors were most needed. The factories have been given greaf power over their suppliers, and the latter ore now entitled to ask for something in return. Factories must organise their transport so that cream will be collected daily, and punctually at that. A supplier who turns out first-class cream should not be asked! to take the risk of keeping it anv time or having it exposed to the sun too long Then, too, a Government officer should visit the factories now and then to keep a check on suppliers' tests If correct tests were assured it would cut out a lot of wasteful rivalrv at bonus time, when the results are'often used purely as a recruiting campaign However, dairymen need not feel anxious about it because the Government has promised to help them. The last pronouncement by the Prime Minster and Mr Coates was to the effect 'nat uneconomic dairy farms would oe allowed to change over to the production of meat and wool. The economic dairy farms would not take Ion." *L C i°i Unt » bllt tlle aev/ she °P >'uns K„m . How 1S that fot ' statesmanlike boldness?— Yours, etc., April 21, 1934. TAS '

TO 'IKE EDITOR OV THE PRESS. Sir,—May I crave a space in your Valuable paper in reference to an article which appears in to-day's issue regarding this Royal Commission to be set up by the Government to investigate the dairy industry of New Zealand. It makes me weep to read about some of the reasons this so-called commission'' is going to investigate, it is very easy to answer some of these Questions. First of all, quality of but:«r: Can you expect us to produce «veet cream when for the last four ? r five months hundreds of farmers in Canterbury have been feeding their cattle on rape. It is astounding the number of farmers who graze on the awful stuff. I happened to be dining .with one farmer a while ago, and, of 7n?u' lie P rod uced the jug of cream or the apple pie. Well, you cannot 'magine the smell of this cream, and ••'so the milk which helped to make ne cup of tea. I asked him what was wiop.g with it. and all he said was that it r-,, sab 'J strong through feeding on this <-n, . w ' l can safel - v su y this cream ,:,... s . t0 ul e factories in and around vXV ain P arts of Cantcrburv all the ■><>r round in large quantities, and it b-iri'i' ■' lv -as°nable to expect that it " J «!y affects the butter, most of which l! > exported. b . ] do not think Danish farmers would y ot ' Ceding on this "putrid hy, v s °ein? that they are still leavpr'U, , Zeairmci behind in regard to Wliv ti J some of these produce' all uii y fcccl on "'"PC and they will .''ell you the same thing: "What are i-ojs"""' s l 0 do: u ' e huvell ' l an >' ' maintain there are hundreds With fl" who arr: mixing a few cows j'"> other things because they all in rv, See that lit,le "cheque" come Dcct t rnonUl - hut you cannot exWie of ti un COWS on I'B' ll la,ld as >om ,m them are trying to do at prefer rom at ., ,s lhc result? When winhay °„, therc is no money to buv j Kobhin only an old straw stack to! ma ntn r round - l wiU challenge, any Prodin« piove a bctter Winter feed (to j than nL! VVC , tness of CEeair » or butter) never " lay and carrots. I have like to t n . lu De nmark. but I would better ,»„« t ,u ey feed their cattle on farmer* V? » h , an most New Zealand lot to Jl i ay * advise M r Forbes Amission e h ° much mone y on this bers rnai I because some of its memln ay be rape feeders, too.—Yours. *Pril 20, ifr.U. BETTER LAND '

TO THE CDITOIC OF TIIK I'KESS. Sir,—Referring to our dairy produce on the London market, I was pleased to read a very able and interesting article written by J. Long ton in "The Press" of April 18, in which he gives all the facts relating to the dairy industry from its inception. Being in the produce trade myself at that time. 1 quite concur with all Mr Longton states regarding both butter and cheese. The introduction of the factory system enabled both our butter and cheese to be exported. By this means the industry has made vast strides up to the present. In the early days of the industry there were creameries or skimming stations where all milk was separated and the cream from them sent on to the factory and there controlled until time to churn into first-grade creamery butter. The butter boxes to the present dav carry the brand pure creamery butter. I remember the first shipments arriving on the English market. It brought a lew shillings'lower than the Danish but gradually rose under that system to within two or three shillings per cwt of Danish. But as soon as the farmer reverted to home separation I noted that the price of our Dutter gradually fell, sometimes to less than 20* per cwt.

Now, in my opini. \ your correspondent, Mr Longton, has stated the true tacts when he says home separation is detrimental. It is impossible to make finest grade from cream that is not controlled. I see by "The Press" this morning that our Government int.nds setting up a commission to go fullv into methods relating to quah.o and other details of the dairy produce t-ade. I quite agree with Mr Longton that apart from the creamery system of control, all cream should be collected daily.—Yours, etc., F. .1. LUMB.