MILK SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 128, 27 November 1923, Page 8

MILK SUPPLY

POSITION IN WELLINGTON ADDRESS TO EOTAEIANS. The speaker at the Rotary Club luncheon to-day was Eotarian R. X Herron, manager of the Municipal Milk Department, who gave an interesting address regarding the city's milk supply. Rotarian Herron asked his hearers to remember that Wellington was at a disadvantage as far as its milk supply source was concerned, the city being almost entirely surrounded by sea and high hills, the latter mainly unsuitable for dairying. Wellington had, in consequence, to reach out a much greater distance for its milk supply than had any of the remaining principal cities of the Dominion. . During the summer season, the supply outside Wellington was approximately three times, and during the winter season, five times the distance the supply area was away from any one of the other cities of the Dominion. Referring to the quality of the supply, insofar as the producer was concerned, Kotanan Herron said that milk was now purchased by the Corporation entirely on a butter-fat basis as far as its basic value was concerned. It was submitted that this method of purchase, instituted by the Corporation, suitably recognised and encouraged the owners of high fatproducing herds. The buying of milk on a fat basis placed the Corporation in a position of supplying milk with a relatively high average fat-content. The department did not extract one single ounce of cream from the article to be supplied as whole milk, however rich it might be, and during the winter season the cream of the bulk milk supplied rose as high as 4.51b of fat. During the hottest portion of the summer season, it was usual for at least 95 per cent, of the milk received at.the depot to grade as first quality, and the total amount of second-grade and condemned milk received during the whole of last year averaged slightly less than 2 per cent, of the whole supply received, so that the loss to the farmers on account of faulty quality was not great. "In my opinion," said Mr. Herron, an undoubted weakness of the whole milk supply in this Dominion lies in the lack of co-ordinated control of farms and stock; the control in. or adjacent to Wellington being divided between the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Public Health, and the Corporation. This division of control causes a multi- ■ plication of inspections by the Depart- j ments concerned, with consequent overlapping and a lack of cohesion and efficiency, which.is inevitable under divided control. In my opinion, if the Corporation were (under a suitable authority) allowed to have the sole control over the premises and herds connected with the milk supply of the city, improved results would be obtained in the milk supply. In the largest cities in the United States it is usual to grade milk into different qualities, such as: (1) Certified; (2) grade A raw; (3) grade A pasteurised; (4) grade B pasteurised; but, on the average, about GO per cent, of the supply is usually classed and sold as grade B pasteurised, which is about the same standard of quality as Wellington's supply. In America the grading of milk is in accordance with the relative standard' tests set by State laws or under regulations of health boards or milk commissions, and both, bacteria counts and the score-card system are in common use in determining the relative grades, the score-card system taking into [account such matters as: (1) The loca- : tion and construction of the milking Bhed (including lighting and ventilating); (2) equipment; (3) the health of the cows; (4) utensils; (5) feed; (6) water; (7) cleanliness of the milking shed, plant, milk-room, yard, etc.; (8) general methods of working." Mr. Herron also dealt with other aspects of milk supply. He was accorded a vote of thanks. j