THE COST OF BUTTER

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 123, 18 February 1919, Page 6

THE COST OF BUTTER

Sir,—l notice in your issue of February 13, in his evidence before the ludustries Commission, that Mr. Cuddie, Director of the Dairy Division of the Department states that the cost of producing a pound of butter -is Is. TJd. I presume this gentleman knows what he is talking about. The Government has fixed the price of butter for local consumption at Is. sd. per pound, or 2Jd. below the cost of production, and tli is loss has to be borne by the unfortunate dairyman—the poorest member of the farming community—so that the wealthy and highly paid city dweller may have his butter cheap. Surely, Sir, this ia the heights of injustice.—l am, etc.,

• " .DAIRYMAN. [Mr. Cuddie's statement was as follows: The average yield of butter-fat per cow throughout tho Dominion, estimated about £ year ago, was 1611b. That estimate covered all cows in milk and dry. That was understood to. be a hlgiier rate' of production tliaji th'at obtaining in Australia, but it was far too low. . . .

It cost about £13-12s. 6d. to keep for one year Hie cow yielding the average 1611b. of butter-fat. The cost worked out about; Is. 7}d. per >lb. of butter-fat. Roughly speaking, so far as the farmer was concerned, lib. of butter-fat meant lib. of butter, though factories did pay for lib: or butter-fat a little more than the actual price/received for butter, where the workins expenses were low. If 1801b. of butterfat were taken as the average yield, the cost of production of lib. of butter-fat would be cut down to Is. 5U1.1