DAIRY EXPORT CONTROL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 47, 25 January 1926, Page 5

DAIRY EXPORT CONTROL.

SUPPORT IN WAIKATO. FAIR TRIAL ASKED FOR. HAMILTON, Jan. 22. At a meeting of the South Auckland Dairy Association the following resolution was passed:—“That this meeting, representing tho producers of a very largo proportion of the total butter and cheese exported in tho Dominion, wholeheartedly supports the Dairy Produce Control Board’s policy of improved export marketing of the Dominion’s dairy produce, and that the secretary be instructed to circularise members of Parliament informing them of this association’s unqualified support of the policy of the Control Board, asking that they refrain from supporting any amending legislation until the board’s policy has had a. fair trial.” A letter was received from the director of tho dairy division stating that arrangements were being made for .the adoption of a scheme of compulsory milk and cream grading. The secretary was directed to write to the Minister expressing tho hope that the necessary arrangements would be mado without delay, the Department of Agriculture to be requested to supply information regarding tho quantity of low, first grade, and second grade butter manufactured and exported from eacli province, and that the percentage manufactured or exported by tho proprietary and cooperative factories bo shown separately. BETTERMENT OF HERDS. TESTING AND BRANDING. WORK IN THE WAIKATO. HAMILTON Jan. 21. Over 60,000 cows in 50 groups are being tested by the New Zealand Cooperative Herd-testing association durin tho current .season, compared with 58,300 cows in 45 groups last year. Tho association’s district now extends as far south as Aria. The association is also doing excellent work in tho direction of calf marking, over 600 calves having been marked since tho beginning of the current season. No calf is marked unless its dam is a proved and tested butterfat producer and its sire is a registered bull. Tho calves are marked by tattooing a number inside tho ear and each calf has its own number and complete records are kept regarding its parentage. During tho past three years, said Mr C. M. Hume, the general manager of tho association, it has not paid funnors to rear calves for sale at five or six months old. Tho better farmers have killed off all tho calves they did not uoed to keep up tho numbers of their herds. As a rule calves havo been reared for sale only by tho poorer farmers who needed a fittle ready cash. Some of these calves are now being accepted as dairy cows when they should never have been roared at all. Tho association aims to rid the industry of cull cows, and knows that this object can be achieved by. a system of branding dairy cows. At present numbers of good cows are being slaughtered because buyers cTo not believe that a farmer would sell a good cow, and there is no method of demonstrating tho cow’s butter-fat production. A gystern of branding would get rid of cull cows and save good producers. The men who are getting the big yields, Mr Humo went on, are the men who are milking small herds of up to 50 cows. With larger numbers the cows receive less attention, and the herd is more difficult to control. Farmers should aim at smaller herds and better feeding. Cows which begin the season in poor condition havo no clianco of giving big yiolds.

LAND OF PLENTY. NEW SOUTH WALES FARMERS JUBILANT. SYDNEY, Jan. 14. Byron Bay district is having one of the best seasons for years. Splendid rains have mado a wonderful growth in the pastures, and tliero lias been a record supply of cream. All tho factories arc working at full pressure, and each boat carries away very large quantities of butter. it is many years since the supply has been so great. Farmers are jubilant at tho prospects, which will enable them to recover most of the losses of the last four years. DAIRY PRODUCE.

Dalgety and Coy., Ltd., report having received the following cablegram from their London house under date January 21:—Butter: Market steady but quiet. We quote New Zealand salted 174 s (1765); Danish, 180 s (180 s) ; finish Australian salted, 166 s (168 s), unsalted 168 s (170 s). Cheese : Market steady but quiet. New Zealand, white 102 s (107 s) ; coloured 104 s (103 s) ; Canadian 108 s (102 s to 106 s). Last week’s quotations are shown in parentheses.

As demonstrating the remarkable power of couch grass, a Wanganui exchange states that a resident of that city who lost a cricket ball in his garden found it a duy or two later, when it had two or three roots of couch grass growing light through it. Tho appearance of bitter pit in many Nelson orchards is reported. Tho opinion of Mr. Thorpe, orchard instructor at Nelson, is that the trouble is due to the abnormal weather this season. The disease is being found over a wide area, and on the flats as well as the hills, in rich land and in poor. All orchards are not affected nor are all the trees of a variety in the same orchard.