DAIRY PRODUCE BARGAINS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 299, 11 September 1908, Page 3

DAIRY PRODUCE BARGAINS.

A NEW FEATURE. SLIDING SCALE INTRODUCED.' ■ The weather in Taranaki is. ideal for the dairying industry (says our correspondents, and it looks like a good season. The milk is increasing rapidly. It is a consignment year, but the buyers are offering record prices. In some cases ll|d. is offered for September-March outputs of butter. Consignment is, however, the fashion, not because the majority of directors expect to get very much more than this price in the particular season that is beginning, but because some of them are of opinion that over a series of years consigning is the best policy . Consignment advocates argue that a fortune may be lost by selling much more probably than a fortune can be lost by consigning. The Sliding Scale.' One buyer is making proposals on a sliding scale as to price for different months. In such a case it is held to be most •important that directors shall' calculate the value of the offers, not on last year's variable monthly outputs, but on the outputs of the preceding year or two. It is obvious 1 that'a low prjco in a busy month and • a high price in a month of " scarcity will not . give such a good final result. as a ■ high price in a busy month and a low price in the month of scarcity. So mo of the months that produced little butter "last year, owing to the drought, will more probably this season yicld_ big - How the Sliding Scale Works. Here are the prices in a sliding scale under which contracts have been made:— • -i Per lb. . September butter 12£ d. ■ October-November llid. ......i llid. February-March lid. A Bit of Arithmetic. , ; ' ' Commenting, on this scale, thei "Taranaki Daily N<jws" of yesterday .quotes a consign-ment'advocate-as pointing out that although thesa price 3 at first sight look equal to lljjd. per lb., yet when the varying volume of . theoutputs was..properly considered they would, yield an average of. scarcely more than lljd. , for the whole output, because,usually 80 per cent, of the season's .butter' was produced when the prices in this scale were low. Tho "Daily News," however, proceeds to estimate the value of the sliding scale on the monthly • outputs of a certain factory at approximately - lljd. for .tho whole, year. The Brighter Side. But the "Daily News" apparently based its calculations on the monthly quantities of last season, wliich were,, of course, exceptionally .'weak'-'at,'.the end. of -the season.The quantities produced per month in tho case quoted were as follow:— >V 'Vlbs. : .September v ...'..... . 14,172' J October 22,397 November ' 32,315 . December • 37^003 January .1... 33,128 , ■ .February- ..... . 22,844 ; '•Mardi ■ 21,621. ' If. sold:at'll?d. per lb. the total price would be £8696 .35.. 9d., and on the sliding scale . it would be only £15 less, so that it-repre-sents practically per lb. A Different Basis.. This mode'of basing the calculation on last year's quantities rather exaggerates the prospects. ' Just in''those months (toward the . end ofj.the season) when"the; prices in the sliding"scale are' lowest, - the''quantities last season'fell off considerably, s in mo?t factories. In'an ordinary season much, more butter would be produced after the price fell below lljd., and this circumstance would greatly reduce the not return ,per pound. .Bearing in mind, however,"the necessity for basing calculations on the relative quantities of an average season, or the season that farmers expect''the present season to be, directors and secretaries will • be quite able to put k fair value'on the sliding scale. ;