RAHOTU DAIRY COMPANY

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 28 July 1932, Page 8

RAHOTU DAIRY COMPANY

SHAREHOLDERS’ ANNUAL meeting.

FINAL PAYMENT OVER, Is

The twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Raliotu Co-operative Dairy Company was held yesterday, Mr. IV. C. Green presiding over an attendance of 50 shareholders.

In their report the directors ex-j pressed regret that prices for cheese I through the season had been on the' low side, and the results of consignments disappointing. The unsold consignments of cheese had been valued at a conservative figure and the balance to credit of the profit and loss account on closing the books was £9676 8s 4d, and after providing £426 for interest on shares and £430 15s Id for depreciation of the factory, plant and residences, there remained £8719 13s 3d. The directors proposed a payment of 2d per lb. butter-fat over the year to he made at the annual meeting, which would absorb £6926 4s { 2d, and leave another )d per lb to be I paid as proceeds of consignments still unsold were realised. The payments I already made equalled over 9.64 d per lb. of butter-fat, and with the final payment Over Is per lb. butter-fat for the year would have been paid, in addition to interest on shares. Statistics for the year ended May 31 were as follow: Milk received, for butter-making 933,8001 b, for cheesemaking 18.153,1091 b., total 19,086,909 lb; butterfat in milk, butter-making 44,684.221 b, cheesemaking 769,320.341 b, total 814,004.561 b; average test, 4.26; cream received, 43,4041 b; butterfat in cream, 17,138.601 b; average test, j 39.46; cheese made (factory weights,’ 1,994,6791 b; lbs of milk to lb of cheese | (factory weights), 9.1; lbs. of chee.se) per lb. of butterfat used for cheesemaking, 2.59271 b.; whey butter made,) 56,6721 b; creamery butter made, 72,5561 b; average advance per lb of butterfat, 9.64 d; average grade, cheese, Rahotu 91.549, Ranana 91.521; average grade, creamery butter, 90.943; average grade, whey butter, 89.171. The weight of butter made from each I pound of fat was 1.17361 b. and the weight of cheese made from each pound of fat was 2.59271 b. “SHOULD BE THANKFUL.” Some had thought that this year, might have turned out better than | last, but prices had not been as good | as hoped for, said the chairman. However, with the prices that had ruled during the year the shareholders. should be thankful for what they had ' received. He did not think the company was very much behind other companies in the results achieved. He had taken note of the reports of other companies along the coast and throughout Taranaki and he had not/ seen > where a company had done better.

Mr. Green did not think it possible to predict what the market would be next year but he hoped it would be better than it was this year. The company -had spent a good deal or money in keeping the factory up-to-date. The drectors had spent money on improvements, particularly on the water supply, which had been a problem in the past, the river supply not being satisfactory. , A well had been sunk and it seemed certain that a certain amount of good water would be obtained, if not for butter-making, for other purposes in the factory. The cottages had been repaired and most of the factory plant had been kept up-to-date. A fair amount had been spent on repairs and renewals. The chairman said it was realised the time would arrive when they would have to spend mor© on the plant. *lf the supply went on increasing as it had it was only a question of time when they would have to build a new factory or extend the present one. Today the department insisted on the making of better butter and cheese and in order that an improvement might beachieved the directors expected suppliers to bring a better quality of milk. They were pleased that the manager had been able to say the milk was improving in quality and had been for some years. The manager had been trying to turn that milk into first-class articles, and he had suceeded. Comparing the pay-out this season with that of 1930, Mr. Green said) the present sum dispersed was £16.000 less, though 70 tons more cheese was made. The total cost of manufacture and charges f.-o.b. was 2.52 d per lb. of fat. He did not thing any other factory could show a more satisfactory result. He thanked the manager (Mr T. O. Farquhar) and staff for work accomplished and paid a, special t'rib-' ute to the secretary (Mr. H. Baily), who was untiring in the interests of the company.

In reply to a Question the manager said the proportion of finest cheese for the season was five per cent., tho rest being first grade.

DAIRY INSTRUCTION

Questioned whether it was intended to continue the services of a dairy instructor if differential payments were adopted, the chairman said that personally he thought the instructor should be retained. The system of instructors was one of the finest things introduced to the dairy industry. Tho detection of one dirty yard and its cleaning was worth the services of the instructor alone. They were performing a valuable service and he would certainly recommend maintaining their services.

Mr. G. Gibson criticised tho position of the Eltham Box Company when referring to a document marked “confidential” issued to dairy company directors. The chairman also referred to the matter ana said the whole question would be reviewed at the forthcoming annual meeting of shareholding. companies. Mr. Gibson considered sufficient Press publicity had not been given to the affairs of the company and the chairman endorsed that opinion, saying that had full publicity been given to the affairs of the Box Company two years ago it would have been better for all concerned. Messrs. Green and G. Gibson were re-elected unopposed to the directorate. Mr D. Pennington was elected to tho seat vacated by Mr. V. S. Ty.rell, who has left the district. Unsuccessful candidates were Messrs. L. F. Fischer and C. E. Field.

NEW BASIS _OF PAYMENT MILK FOR, CHEESEMAKING. HAW ERA SCIENTIST’S SYSTEM. TRIAL AT RAHOTU. A new system of payment for milk supplies for cheesemaking is to be given a trial this year by the Rahotu Dairy Company, acting in co-operation with the Hawera dairy laboratory. The scientist, Mr P. O. Yeale, describes the system as not a method of payment for fat plus casein, hut .payment for butter-fat on its cheese producing capacity, which is determined by the ratio of casein to fat in the milk.

The method of payment had been exercising the minds of many, also the point whether low or high test cows were better for cheesemaking, said the

chairman of directors, Mr W. C. Green, in an outline of the proposals to the twenty-fifth annual meeting of tlie company yesterday. The directors had decided this year to go into the question more thoroughly, and Mr Veale, of tlie Hawera laboratory, had been brought into the matter. The directors had decided for the coming year to permit the testing of the whole of the milk for casein content, the cost being low —£50 for the whole of the season —and they were going to make payment on casein and butterfat content to test the matter. The scheme would be watched by other factories, and if anything were found to be in it no doubt they would also adopt the system. Perhaps he was a pessimist, but he had an -idea/ that after this, year it would be found to be a “wash-out” and that the lowtesting cow was not the asset imagined.

CHANGED METHOD NEEDED. “The idea is- to obtain a better system of payment for milk used for ( cheesemaking,” said Mr Veale. “At present you are paid for fat, but it is not fat you sell.” Once it was the i custom to base payment for milk for I cheesemaking on the gallon of milk, but it was found that system was •open to serious abuse. Then the system of payment according to butterfta was introducedj and for a time this was considered satisfactory, but, it was now contended that this system of payment was not strictly fair, as the amount of fat in the milk did not indicate the amount of cheese that could he produced from that milk. The quantities of casein present varied in different milks, and this had a bearing on the cheesemaking qualities. Under the system of payment by fat ■ test some men supplying milk for I cheese might be receiving more than ; they were entitled to, while others re- | ceived less than they were entitled to, f added Mr Veale. That was not fair. | Therefore a scheme to pay according ’to the amount of cheese produced from milk would be beneficial. In the past all plans had failed where they were based on the fat content of milk. This scheme was to test the milk for casein as well as- fat, and from this, I test it was simple to decide what amount of cheese could be made from milk. It might be that milk was producing 2.31 b of cheese to lib of fat or 2.81 b to lib of fat. Under the plan to be introduced the factory manager would test the milk I for fat exactly as in the past and milk I samples would be tested at Hawera for I casein as well, from tables in the posI session of the laboratory it would then be simple to show the yield of cheese j from each sample of milk. In this way they would give a trial to a system of payment strictly according to the cheese producing capacity of the different milks. If a man had a high cheese producing milk it was only fair that :he should he paid according to its I value for that i>m - pose. After all it [ was the cheese the factory sold and not the butter-fat. CASEIN TEST SIMPLIFIED. In the past casein test systems had not been put into operation because there was not a simple enough test for a factory manager to undertake, as with butter-fat, but as the Hawera laboratory was available the matter was simplified. The Rahotu directors had therefore decided, as pioneers, to give the system a trial of 12 months, paying each supplier according to the cheese producing qualities of his milk. Mr T. Wilcox said Mr Veale had assumed that butter-fat was of no value. How did he square that with the opinions held hj r world-wide experts for many years? They had said that the high-testing cow and hightesting milk were the best for cheesemaking. He had been informed New Zealand made the best cheese in February and March. Mr Veale said he had not meant that butter-fat was of no value. This system proposed to pay each supplier for the cheese his milk produced, whether his milk was high or low-testing. New Zealand cheese had a fat content in the dry matter of 58 to 60 per cent, compared with 52 to 53 per cent in Canadian and 49 to 51 in English farmers’. If New Zealand were right the prices for the Dominion product should' be going up, whereas they tended to go down. There was no idea of continually advocating lower-testing milk for cheesemaking. They were advocating 52 to 53 per cent of fat in the dry matter, similar to the best Canadian. They might elect to go in for higher and higher-testing milk, but they certainly would not get more and more money for their cheese. He mentioned an experiment recently carried out at Wisconsin by experts, this indicating that cheese with 52 to 53 per cent of fat in the dry matter graded highest, while cheese with the highest fat content in the dry matter scored lowest. Cheese containing a moderate amount of fat in the dry matter scored highest right through. But whether the cheese had a high or low fat content did not matter very much if they were going to consider the question from the aspect of fair play or honest dealing. If a man’s milk produced more cheese than that of another it was only fair to pay him for the cheese his milk produced.

Mi- Field asked whether it was not possible that a low-grade milk would not produce good cheese and that it required to be mixed with highertesting milk to bring the cheese up to the best duality. Mr Veale said tha if they went to extremes in low-testing milk it might be possible to produce a. cheese so low in fat that it would not bo a good article, lnit he would say that no milk of that kind was being produced in Taranaki to-day, even from recognised low-testing herds. Three per cent milk would produce slightly more than 50 per cent of fat in the dry matter of cheese. Under the system he proposed’ there would lie no encouragement to produce milk lower and lower in fat content. A limit would be 3.8 or 3.9' per cent, making up to 52 or 53 per cent of fat in the cheese, equal to Canadian and higher than English farmers’, both of which gained higher prices than New Zealand.

EFFECT OF SKIMMING. Questioned by Mr Pennington, who asked what would ho the result of skimming the milk to a 3 per cent test, Mr Veale said it would he equivalent to standardisation. The system proposed would enable the detection of such a practice and it would then he for the directors to take what action tbev saw fi. as in the case of the adding of water. There was a difference between machine separating and skimming by hand, as done by the English farmer. The system of testing advocated was the fairest yet devised and was .proof against playing about with the milk. The chairman said the directors had decided to give the -system a. trial for a year. His own feeling was that the man with the low-testing milk would be found to be the lower receiver.

Mr Wilcox said Mr Veale had referred' to the better prices obtained for Canadian cheese and English farmers’, New Zealands’ chief competitors. He suggested New Zealand failed in re-

gard to the proper maturing of its cheese. They put it in crates and sent it away. Might net the advantages obtained by the Canadian and the English farmers be due to their superior methods of maturing? Mr Veale said he was .prepared to admit there might he a great deal in that. New Zealand supplied well over 60 per cent of the British market. He was certain that if they improved the quality all round there - would be an improvement in prices. In answer to another question he said the method of payment under his system was not fat nlus casein, hut payment for butterfat on its cheese producing capacity, which was determined bv the ratio of casein to fat in the milk. Mr Waswo asked if the underfeeding of high-testing cattle would produce a drop in the test. Mr Veale said underfeeding would onlv result in a- drop in production, with comparatively little difference in the analytical properties of the milk. It was very difficult indeed to alter the qualities of a milk.. Mr Veale was accorded a vote off thanks. Mr M. Hill moved that differential payment he made yd a lb less for second quality milk. The motion. lost.