DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8926, 12 September 1905, Page 6

DAIRY INDUSTRY.

THE SEASON'S PROSPECTS.

A well-known dairy expert, speaking with a representative of- the Manawatu Standard last week, referred in- sanguine terms to the prospects of the industry.

"Do you think from your -experience there will be any material increase in the industry this season?" suggested the pressman. — Yes, I there will be

a very great increase, notwithstanding the numerous clearing sales of dairy stock all j over the district. I have found during my travels that a great many- fa-rmers have increased their herds. "The outlook the season- is so - good, so faj as" prices are concerned, that people are" inclined- to devote greater atfcenfckm to the. industry than formerly. The general prospect this year is much better than it was . at this time last year. Then, again, the price of sheep is so high that farmers" who might otherwise go in for sheep, on account~of the price of wool and the buoyancy of the industry, find they are unable, withoutembarrassing themselves, to purchase sufficient sheep to pay them, as well as .dairying. There are more Home buyers of butter out this season, that I have known in any previous season, so that.it is~very evident, they are desirous of getting Tin touch with producers. At "the present time there is a scarcity of butter at Home owing to the drought that has been experienced all over Europe. Butter is very" much higher in price, at Home now than, it was at this time last year. This, of course, will-have a strong l>eheficial effect upon the Xew Zealand market. There ' will be no difficulty-in selling the coming j season's output at payable prices. I hay/ 1 already heard of several companies disposing of their outputs for the next tlirce years at 9£d per lb, at the ship, Welling- { ton. This price means that buyers have j great faith in the future prospects of- the-J industry, for at least three years. -The ' buyers were a shrewd firm qf merchants. Although not a very big price,- still itmeans at least 8d to b^d to producers per '- lb of butter-fat. The best price that I i havr yet heard of was got by a Taranaki i company, who sold their output at lO^dper lb. equal to about B|d to the supplier, in addition to his _ skim- milk . (Memo. : Pihama reports ha»ving-sold at lOgd^) With prices such as "these one can "easily un<i«r— stand the benefit the dairying industry has been to the whole community, especially when one remembers that" only eight years ago the price at the factory was as low as 6£d per lb during the best months of the year ; that, again, was a big amount on the price paid by the storekeepers when they took the dairyman's butter at 3d and 4d a lb. and credits had to be' "taken ouV at that. Yes. there is" no doubt there is a future before the dairying industry. -