CO-OPERATIVE DAIRYING

Hawera Star, Volume L, 29 July 1930, Page 9

CO-OPERATIVE DAIRYING

NORM ANDV COMPANY

REVIEW OF THE YEAR. The work of post season was reviewed at the annualj meeting of the Normanby Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd., held at the Normanby Town Hall to-day, Mr. F. AY. Atkins, diairman of directors, presiding ever an attendance of 50 fihareholders mid suppliers. After the confirmation of the minutes of the last annual meeting the chairman move the adoption of tliei report (already published) and the balance-sheet. In doing this, he congratulated suppliers on results achieved. by the company during the season, which was one of the most difficult, not only for the dairying industry! hut also foil* evejry class of" the community “Financial and industrial trouble®, with increased unemployment,” h© said, Lave had a. direct; bearing on the value of dairy produce, the only bright spot being the continued iiiiciiiea.se in production which apparently is. general in the Dominion. Normanby has shown an increase of 7.0 pep cent, in milk and 10.85 -per cent, in butter-fat showing how the average test has risen. The cheese output shows an increase of over 00 tons and this being standardised, has brought about the manufacture of 55 tons of creamery butter, making the to tall production in round figures 924 tons of cheese, 55 tons of creamery butter, and 19 ton® oif whey butter. This is easily our greatest output in any one year.” The whole of the; produce was sent on open consignment through Messrs Andrew Clement and! Sous, and the Now Zealand Go-operative Marketing ssociaticn. half to each. The realisations were of full market value, the difference between the two firms being very slight.' In consequence, the director® decided to entrust to these firms the output for the coming season. “Many reports have come to hand, good and bad, upon the quality of the cheese exported and no doubt some, are true,” he continued. When prices were low, people naturally looked for reasons and that which had been considered most blameworthy was standardisation. Normanby' s_ cheese for the past season had been of a high quality, based upon reports received from Home. Normanby had endeavoured to keep in touch with buyers of produce and had obtained nothing hut good reports.. and the chairman said his opinion was that the outcry about lowering the quality “had as much imagination as reality attached to it. An odd factory had slipped in make through adding too high a percentage of skim milk in the effort to manufacture standardised cheese, but this did not, in his opinion, apply generally throughout the country. “As a result of the supposed drop in quality,” said the chairman, “efforts are being made, to raise the standard and with that object in view, conferences have been convened to discuss ways and means.”

The chairman also reviewed certain items on the balance-sheet, showing how various increases in expenses had been justified by the increased output. The chairman referred to marketing of the produce for the season and saio the Jquestion had required a great deal of time and thought, and had proved very hard to solve. Produce at one time fell as low as 71s foi cheese, the lowest reached since May, 1922, but it opened well at 90s in Augjust and in September was 965. During these two months the directors had many and varied offers, from 8i on September 6, to 8J somewhat later in the month. But no sale was made and the market dropped. The directors held many meetings to consider the question and were supported by Homereports but, unfortunately, the'market took a downward turn and directors stuck to the consignment policy and decided then to hold on the chance ol a recovery. The result of the negotiations was that they realised a small amount over the: price ruling when storage was decided upon.

Butter was sold very satisfactorily, the whole of the whey butter being sold at Is 3d peel lb, first grade, top price for this class of butter. Creamery butter to the extent of 35 tons also was made and good sales were made at Is s£d per lb f.o.b. Butter made from October onwards was sold at a good price, equal to about- 145 s per cwt.

After a few questions had been answered, the motion, was carried. Messrs. W. Mortlock and. A. Thrush were re-elected to the board of directors.

Messrs. Tristram and Lennon were re-appointed auditors on the same terms as last year.