DAIRY NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11367, 7 September 1897, Page 7

DAIRY NOTES.

From every dairying district come reports of an early opening of the season, with cows coming in much better in condition than usual, the dry winter having been greatly in their favour, though in some localities there has been a pinch in feed. The North Island generally and Southern Otago have had a phenomenally favourable season. The first shipment of the new season’s butter from Taranaki for the London market was despatched on Friday, 358 boxes. The season opens early, with bright prospects. The Agricultural Department has received a cable message from the AgentGeneral stating that butter is at 965, with a rising market. Cheese 455, market good. A very interesting feature in regard to the export of butter (on which Mr Fairbairn, Sydney representative of the Co-operative

Wholesale Association, lays stress) is the fact that different tastes prevail in different parts of Great Britain, and that butter which would suit Manchester will not do for the London market. Some districts want pale-coloured butter, others want it rich-looking. Others again require it with a good deal of salt, and still others like it with hardly any salt. Mr Sydney Smith, the New South Wales Minister of Agriculture, intends to take steps to have the kinds of butter required by the various local markets in Great Britain talnxlated and printed for the information of butter producers. Also, in the carrying out of the Government grading and branding; the bnttev-makers will be informed of the most suitable locality in Great Bx-itaiu to which to send their particular product. The latest improvement in De Laval separators is that the “ Baby ” has been •fitted with steam turbine motive power, by: which its skimming capacity is increased to 55 gallons per hour. This will make the ~ “Baby Laval” still more adapted than at present for the -’tise of fariners who do their own separating, ’■ The Kaikoura Co-operatiVe Dairy Company’s profit and loss account for the past year shows difference between cost of milk and proceeds of cheese .£731 Os sd, which is reduced by debit balance, 1895-96, .£BB 4s lOd, reserve fund £3O, and working expenses to an available balance of £127 2s 9d. From this it is proposed to pay 6 per cent on the paid-up capital and a bonus of )d per gallon to milk-supplying shareholders, leaving a balance of about £l9 to be carried forward to new account. The manager, Mr Graham, has been engaged for another year. The annual meeting of shareholders will be held next Monday, Sept. 6. Taranaki exported last year 3160 tons of butter, and 449 tons of cheese. A local paper comments thus on the subject;— To produce 3160 tons of butter requires approximately 17,696,000ga1s of milk, while 449 tons of cheese will absorb 1,005,760 gals; to these figures may be added 2,000,000ga1s for a year’s local consumption, which gives a total of, in round numbers, 20,000,000ga1s of milk produced in a year in Taranaki. The agricultural census .for 1896 showed a total of 56,479 dairy cows in the Taranaki district, so that the average yield of each cow must have been 366 gals, to which must be added a few gallons for the young calves. Allowing that each pair of hands milks fifteen cows daily, taken all round probably a liberal estimate, there must he a small army of 3765 milkers daily engaged in this operation. A gain or loss of five shillings per cwt on the output of butter means a gain or loss of £16,000 during the year, no inconsiderable sum to divide among dairymen, to whose interest it is that nothing but the highest quality of butter or cheese should leave the district.