MILK GRADING

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 7 August 1931, Page 10

MILK GRADING

THE FARMERS’ BOGEY ME. F. H. ANDERSON SPEAKS OUT “NO TIME FOE, PLATITUDES '’ “If tlx* l ! Government has not the courage, to bring into effect milk grading, we, the* owners of the industry, must do it ourselves. Milk grading is a bogey most farmers are afraid of. I can assure you that any fears are groundless],” said Mr. F. H. Andersen, chairman of the Cambridge Co-opera-tive Dairy Company, Ltd., at the annual meeting of the company, in the course of a comprehensive review of the industry, in which lie dealt thoughtfully and practically with the problems of cheese manufacture. Mr. Anderson is chairman of the special committee set up by the National Dairy Conference to bring down a report on administrative reform.

After referring to Dominion and world-wide economic problems, Mr. Anderson said (as reported in the “Waikato Times”): ) “Our cheese problem has been prominently before us for years, but here / again it has been accentuated by competition for supply and competitive pay-out. If our quality is to be improved. there must be a universal move throughout the cheese industry in New Zealand. It is no good one district doing it without the other. We must start with the cow and be sure that the quality of our milk supply is all that it should None of as can sav that it cannot be improved. Our factory managers will tell you that they could make better cheese if the milk was of better quality. GRADING OF MILK. “The universal grading of milk tor cheese-making was adopted at too -National Dairy Conference at New Plymouth last month, but unfortunately tliis industry is not governed by majority rule, neither, 1 am afraid, is it governed at all times by business methods. “We are subject to a Government and departmental control which, itself is governed hy the fear of the loss of political prestige in bringing in regulations which, although undoubtedly for the common good, might be taken amiss by some sections of the industry.

“A very .stroug effort was made at the New Plymouth conference to indicate that the present administration of the industry was unbusinesslike and preventing the improvement of the industry, and I have the privilege of being the chairman of a committee representing the North and South Islands which is engaged in endeavouring to improve matters. 1 say endeavouring, gentlemen, because I fear the committee’s efforts will be prejudiced by individual and sectional interests and apathy.

“The only hopeful phase that I have encountered is the genuine desire of the Minister ol' Agriculture, the Hon. A. J. Murdoch, to be helpful to the industry and somewhat free it from the trammels of the departmental control which was probably necessary in the infancy of the industry, but is now no longer required.

PASTEL I? I SAT lOX DELE IM ENTAL. Continuing, Mr Anderson said: “The cheesemaker wants a milk he does not require to pasteurise. They do not i pasteurise in Canada. The director of (the Dairy Division in Canada, Dr. lEuddick, stated recently: ‘The Dairy I Department has been studying this problem from various angles lor the past 25 years; as a result we are not prepared to recommend the system as yet, but wo may be compelled to adopt it if the raw material becomes much worse.’ “If we continue to supply our cheesemakers with a milk that •they require to pasteurise up to 165 degrees F., to destroy the harmful bacteria in the milk, then they have to take the risk of affecting the curd of the cheese and the final flavour. We should aim to supply a milk that does not require pasteurisation at all or one that the cheesemakers can safely pasteurise at 145 deg. F. and know that no harmful bacteria will afterwards develop in the cheese vats and in the cheese during curing. “Milk grading is a bogey most farmers are afraid of. 1 can assure you. that any fears are groundless—the intention is that the finest milk should be paid Id per lb butterfat more than first- grade. We do not. know what quantity we shall have of either, but a premium on finest should practically eliminate the first grade milk. Cream grading has been in successful operation now for five years, and in our' own company last year the percentage of other than finest cream during all except the winter months was 2 per cent, of the total supply. If we started milk grading there would bo more than that percentage, but I should estimate that 10 per cent, would cover it for the first year. Gentlemen, it is worth while—it is starting at the right end of the business.

OTHER FACTORS. “I do not say milk grading will revolutionise tht‘ quality of our cheese, there are other factors militating against quality,” said the speaker. “We have to put right the labour conditions in our factories. In Canada they have no Arbitration Court conditions in the industry and they are not lied to hours for cheese-making. Our dairying industry is endeavouring to get ’ free from the Arbitration Court and get arrangements made between employers and employees through conciliation. As a step towards the improvement of the quality ol our cheese the move is essential. C heese cannot be made by the clock and any hastening of the normal process of manufacture is not in the interests of quality.

QUESTION 01-' MATURITY. “\Ye are told on good authority that some of our choose is only 1 roy.cn curd when it arrives Home in the winter months, and 1 would point out here that we are at if considerable disadvantage compared with our Canadian competitors inasmuch as the bulk of our cheese arrives in Ungland in the winter months and is allotted in its maturing and after it is cut by the cold weather, whereas their cheese arrives Home in the English summer. The remedy to counteract these conditions is to mature it longer here. \Vc have provided additional accommodation to enable us to do so. but is if going to pay us to tie so il the rest ol the industry, iloes not come into liner YVe must act in unison also and see that the Dairy Produce Hoard, instead of lauding itself on having obtained a shipping contract at a reduced figure,

arranges a contract that gives the industry shipping conditions# helpful in the maturing of our cheese on the voyage flume." Mr. Anderson went- on to criticise the delay at this end through an inefficient shipping service, and also commented adversely on the Dominion’s marketing methods. In leaving these subjects to go on and deal with the report and balancesheet. Mr Anderson said he had spoken out because it was no time for talking platitudes. The industry was facing conditions which necessitate improvements in the industry and much could he effected by the individual efforts of suppliers, factory employees and directors. The industry’s very existence, in face of competition from all parts of the world, depended upon unified effort as well as to improve the general stoutlaid o! D"' produce and its marketing.