How Many Cows?

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32222, 14 February 1970, Page 10

How Many Cows?

The British Home Secretary (Mr Callaghan) has become the focus of dairy farmers’ protests since he suggested that a herd of 51 cows was too small to be economic. Although the precise wording of his remark is in dispute, that is hardly material to the larger question it has prompted, which is of just as much interest to the New Zealand dairy industry as to the British: how many cows comprise an “ economic ” dairy herd? The newly-elected president of the National Farmers’ Union (Mr Henry Plumb), who described Mr Callaghan’s remark as “ quite “irresponsible”, said that 70 per cent of the dairy herds in the United Kingdom were of fewer than 50 cows; “ and they are very efficient ”. In France the average dairy herd some years ago comprised fewer than 10 cows. In New Zealand the average herd three years ago was 86 cows, four more than in the previous year. The cost of producing a gallon of milk or a pound of butter is lower in Britain than in France, lower still in New Zealand. Although the size of the average dairy herd is not the only factor determining the cost of production, it is evidently one of the major factors. If. as some United Kingdom dairy farmers suspect, the British Government intends to eliminate all the smaller dairy farms in Britain, it has economic logic on its side. But for the farm subsidies, which guarantee the farmer 3s 9d a gallon for his milk, United Kingdom milk production would be only a fraction of its present volume. The abolition of the subsidies is not under consideration: but the rate of subsidies may be changed from year to year in the annual review of farm prices, which are now being negotiated. The farmers have “ demanded ” an increase of £l4O million, or about 45 per cent: they might get £25 million. From New Zealand’s point of view the total paid out in subsidies in the United Kingdom is less important than the level of support for the production of specific commodities. If, as is likely, Mr Callaghan’s Government decides to stimulate the production of beef rather than milk, the 50-cow herd may become uneconomic in the United Kingdom, as it has long been in this country.