INCENTIVE TO GOOD DAIRYING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1914, Page 6

INCENTIVE TO GOOD DAIRYING

If the average value of New Zealand butter and cheese in oversea markets were increased by 3s per cwt, it would mean to the producers of this Dominion a sum of over £150,000 per annum, based on our output of dairy produce last year. This is a prize -worth trying for; and, according to the Director of Dairying (Mr. D. Cuddie), we could easily win it if the dairy factories graded milk and cream not only according to butter fat, but in relation to purity, which is essential to a high-grade product. At present, under the Babcock test syEtem, milk is paid for by the factories according to its butter-fat content, but this, JMr. Cuddie points out, is merely a quantitative standard, and does not take into account the cleanness of the milk and its suitability as raw material for manufacturing purposes. A farmer has every incentive to increase his percentage of butter-fat, but no monetary inducement to maintain a high standard of purity; because^ — with the exception perhaps of the very worst lots, which are usually ' rejected— the factories mix all grades together, and the careful supplier receives the same price as- the careless one. This is not only giving a premium to individual inefficiency; it is also imposing a loss on the whole export trade. Mixing all grades of milk reduces the whole to a common standard, so that it is impossible in the manufactured article to get the full and unrestricted benefit of the best supplies brought to the factories. Payment according to purity would brhyg the careless supplier up to the mark. He himself would be benefited, and the whole dairy produce export trade would be worth at least an additional £150,000 a year. Recently Mr. E. 0. Challis, the chief dairying expert of the South African Union Government, reviewing our dairy farming in terms which were generally appreciative, at the same time awoke unpleasant memories by mentioning that a portion of the cheese was not clean in flavour ; and he suggested that the cause was dirty milking machines. When that question was raised some time ago, Mr. Cuddie pointed out that to attempt to meet the admitted evil by inspection would be very costly and probably not successful. He now shows that a system of grading milk and cream, under whicn the factories would pay in proportion to the purity and suitability for high-class manufacture, would improve the methods of dairy farmers in a way that no degree of expensive and possibly irritating Statesupervision could ever accomplish. An incentive in price Would do more than an army of vigilant inspectors. If the grading of milk and cream at the factories, according to purity, is to be a commercial success, it must be efficient and not too costly; both of which necessary factors can. be secured. In an article in the Journal of Agriculture Mr. Cuddie outlines a system under which an official would, once a week, take samples of the milks of the various suppliers at each factory. Working on the one-day-a-week basis, which is considered sufficiently frequent, he could grade at least six factories a week, and dairy companies operating in neighbouring districts could enter into an agreement to share the cost pro rata, which would make the expense of each factory very moderate. For preference the grading officials should be, appointed by the Government, which fact would give them an independent status. The present pooling or mixing of the factory milk supply, which is a premium on careless dairy farming and a tax on the product, is, says Mr. Cuddie, "one of the weakest spots in our excellent co-operative dairying system."