Price of Milk

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 188, 8 May 1934, Page 11

Price of Milk

Sir, —1 have read the correspondence in your valuable paper on the subject of milk, and wholeheartedly endorse “Shannon’s” and "Dairyman’s” letters. "Kiwi" sa?s that he pays 9d. per gallon for his 'milk, the same as I do, and that lie sells it at 1/- per gallon. Then he goes ou to ask. why don’t we. get 16oz. an the lb., etc. If "Kiwi” can make his ’dairy pay when he retails milk at 1/per gallon (for, of course, I presume he does not deliver it as well), one wonders if he can by some miraculous method obtain nine pints out of every gallon he sells. I consider that I’m being rather sparing if I get seven points out of every gallon through giving a little over. ■ | For “Producer” ■ to compare the price for butterfat that he obtains, with the price that a licensed dairy gets for its milk, without comparing the’ extra cost involved, is ridiculous. I shall not re; peat what “Shannon” wrote, but supplement it a little. The dairy or sheds from which I buy my milk cannot use “machines.” which are, of course, cheaper (else why <M 90 per cent, of the farmers use them?) because the people say that they can taste rubber in the milk; therefore it is necessary to hand-milk, thereby giving more employment and increasing the cost of production. Winter feed is another big problem. Feed that can be used when the cream is sent to the factory cannot always be used for a milk round as it taints the milk. One has to be very careful and particular. Again, the farmer who supplies the factory is sure of his money; the farmer who supplies the dairyman is not. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I do not propose to answer for the l Wellington Municipal Milk Department, but I can quite understand why it has to charge 1/10 per gallon. I find that my business has not increased one iota through reducing my price of. sd. per quart down to 4d., and I am sorry that I did so, for the cost of delivery takes all the profit. It would be interesting to know just what it costs the Municipal Milk Department per gallon for delivery; since its customers are close together and it has good roads, whereas I have bad roads and a scattered round. On one part of my round ! have reduced my price of 6d. per quart down to ,5d., and still it has not improved my business. Visitors still pay 6d. if it is booked, but sd. cash or coupon, so I don’t’see how the Municipal Milk Department can pasteurise the milk, bottle and deliver it for less than what it does. It would be nice for the unemployed to be able to buy milk cheaper, but would, or could, they even then. I had an arrangement with the unemployed organisation here to supply them with milk at a shade under 3|d. per quart if they took at least five gallons, delivered to their respective homes within the borough, and not more than two or three persons desired to avail themselves of this offer: they had to use the coupon svstem. So you see, cheaper milk does not necessarily mean increased consumption. —I am. etc.. , FOXTON. Foxton. May 4.