INCREASED COSTS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 64, 9 December 1936, Page 12

INCREASED COSTS

Heavy Burden of Dairy Companies RECENT LEGISLATION Estimate of £3 an Acre in Waikato Dominion Special Service Auckland. December 8. Au estimate of the increased factory costs to be borne by dairy companies as a result of the recent legislation has been compiled lw the staff of the Morrinsville Co-operative Dairy Co., Ltd. “It is possible now to get a view of , the probable increased factory costs in butter manufacturing for the current year,” says a statement issued on behalf of the company. “Our own figures reveal the following increases: Cream collection, £2600: boxes, £3600; wages, £2000; sundries, etc., £!S00. Total, £lO,OOO. Our anticipated output this year will be 3400 tons, so that the increase is, roughly speaking, £3 per ton of butter manufactured. “Taking the Waikato output of butter at 70,000 tons for the year, the extra cost is calculated to be £210,000 for the period, which is interest upon a capital of £4,200,000 at 5 per cent, per annum. It may be accepted that the average carrying capacity of the Waikato country is a cow to two acres, so that 700.000 cows are milked to produce the butter tonnage on 1,400,000 acres. The increased capitalisation of £4,200,000 is really a burden of £3 per acre over this country, and yet the only trouble is land values, according to spokesmen of the Government.”