LARGE PROFITS FROM COWS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 25 May 1917, Page 2

LARGE PROFITS FROM COWS

Dairy farmers on' the Orbost flats {says an Austialian exchange) have been doing remarkably well of recent date. During the past twelve months the local butter factory has paid a maximum of 2s, and a minimum of Is 4d per lb for butter-fat. The profits that are being derived from the industry have never been greater than now. The bal-ance-sheet of one of the leading dairy farmers proves conclusively that dairying shows better returns than any other use to which the land can b© put. This man has a herd of 68 cows, which run on 70 acres. The full number are milked in the spring, summer, and autumn, while in the winter the cows in profit average between 30 and 35. For the twelve months ending March 31. 1917, his cheques for butter-fat aggregated £1388 10s. In addition to this, calves to t/he value of £345 were sold. He assesses the skim milk, which is used for feeding pigs, at £100 (a very low .estimate). This shows a gross return for the year's operations of £1833 10s, or an average of £26 19s 3d per cow. Exi pressed in another way it represents an income from the land* of £26 3s lOd an acre gross. The amounts derived from maize or bean growing even under the most favorable conditions are not comparable with this. Present prices

of dairy products are1 exceptionally j high, but, taking them at normal | rates, dairying is still a more pro&iable ! means of employing the land. It hn» ihe } further advantage of bringing in C&ik ' at regular intervals throughout tk&\ year.

I In connection with the proposal to [ gu°U: rw ge Quantities of potatoes in the Dominion, a country settler points ou!t to the Manawatu Standard that the ; ultimate result of the pototo-growing scheme would be a tremendous glut in I the market, as it was impossible to send shipments oversea, and crops which we're taken out of the ground in March and April would not be fib for consumption after November. He remembered a glut in the potato market many years ago, when a farmer friend of his was glad to sell at ss_per ton. It was suggested that instead of growing potatoes on a large scale, landowners should be ■ urged to produce cereals in the form of ™rley, wheat, oats, peas, and maize, ims class of produce, unlike potatoes . would not perish and would prove a more profitable undertaking to the farmer and be a greater benefit to the community generally. Potatoes should only b e grown in .sufficient quantities to meet the requirements of consumers. The settler was most emphatic regai-d----ing the points he had raised, and hoped the matter would receive the eonsfdera_ I tion its importance deserved*-