THE DAIRY SEASON.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 467, 27 March 1909, Page 3

THE DAIRY SEASON.

SIGNS OF THE END. A RETROSPECT. Some of the export contracts for dairy produce will expire at the end of this month, and others will gradually' fall in ,at later dates. A month or six weeks hence most of the factories will be running only on alternate days, and from that timo onward the entire closing of factories for the winter will gradually take place. To some extent the dates of these different stages, of course, will be varied by the weather and the amount of feed prevailing in tho Deantime. It is a time for looking back and reviewing the season; a time if or counting the takings, noting the faults, and making resolutions for another year's guidance. Has it been a paying season ? To those factories who sold outright it has been a handsome season. Tho suppliers will get lid. and lljd, per pound for the season's tuHtr-fat. This is munificent. For once at least the . men who buy butter and cheese havo done tbe factories good. From one buyer alone it is estimated the factories have received £50,000 more than they would have got if they had "consigned." But those who consigned will not have such satisfied suppliers to deal with. To them the returns in prices will be "only middling." But even in their case they nave no cause to grumble at the total result of the season. "Only middling" prices on top of the voluminous flow of milk that this season has produced gives a total result that every dairy farmer with a liver in a reasonable state of health ought to be thankful for.' All round it has been a good season. Possibly after the drought lessons of the preceding year many fanners laid down extra reserves of fodder. With the abundance of grass which this season has produced, the fodder might almost seem to have been superfluous, although where the farmers used it and noted its benefit even in a season of plenty, the lesson taught will very likely in many cases bear permanent fruit. The exportation of butter will Boon stop, and the storing of butter for the local winter trade will' begin; It' is too early to speculate as to the chances of a shortage next winter. The recent ■ rains had an appreciable influence on the milk'yield in Taranaki, where the rainfall was heaviest, and'if, perchance, we were, to have a mild late autumn and. early winter, as marked as that which has been experienced in Britain ] there might be a very heavy production' of autumn and winter 'butter. It wbidd be a real pity if exact .information of the future were to become now available to; shatter' all opportunity for " the' thrilling speculation which alwaysiv ushers in a New Zealand dairying winter. Thanks to the veil that hides the future, one' can always start the talk across the boundary fence by observing that there may,"or may not, be poor prices next winter, but that it will be morally safe to ..wager that there won't be. v

The exportation of cheese will continue longer; not because the cheese fanners possess any particular skill in prolonging 'the milk flush, but only because there is not the same necessity to store up for the needs of New Zealand. New Zealanders don't eat cheese.. When butter supplies were running low last year, some people Were perturbed Jest they should be unable to' obtain their weekly supplies regularly till the cows "came in" again. But if we ran right short of cheese, it is quite conceivable that lots of us would not give it a thought. Most New < Zealanders could stand a twelve months', siege .without cheese in the utmost comfort. If supplies of cheese became distinctly limited, and.,no reinforcements were possible for a "substantial period, it is doubtful if the wildest of speculators would risk paying very high prices to corner the market.

k . So bur cheese factories will go on exporting to Britain, where the stolid worker appreciates his nutritions cheese lunch or supper. Last year, at the end of April, there were over 20,000 boxes—over 10,000 cwt, of butter put by in the cold stores of New_ Zealand, because the expectations of a winter shortage, caused by the drought and the low milk flow, had made a shortage appear imminent. It will be well remembered, also, what an outcry there was from buyers in England ( and New Zealand, because they were not getting as much butter from their factories &s they had contracted for and expected. "They had bought cheaply, and were Belling dearly in Britain, and they had a suspicion that the factory directors of New Zealand had "swung" some of their output over to , the local markets, where fat prices were ruling, or were quietly putting it into cold stores for use. later, when the contract periods had expired. There was hot talk of act'ions for damages at the time. N

But this year it is doubtful if there will be 2000 boxes in store,, even at the. end of March. For there are no immediate prospects of a shortage. On the whole, the New Zealand dairyfarmers, whether sellers or consigners, have a balance, of cause overflowing in their cup of the year's experiences, for thankfulness. -