DAIRY PRODUCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 88, 13 March 1934, Page 5

DAIRY PRODUCE.

| ACTIVE DEMAND FOR BUTTER.

CHEESE MARKET FIRM.

There was an improvement on the Lon- » don dairy produco markets on Saturday, i* butter being in active demand and cheese ' firming. i Joseph Nathan and Company, Ltd., have received from London the following l cabled advice, dated March 10: —New Zea--1 land butter in active demand at 70s por I cwt, sellers now asking 71s. New Zca--1 land cheese: White, 42s 6d to 43s per | cwt; coloured, 445. Firm. ’ , The Bank of Now South Wales has > received the following advice, dated March [ 9, from its London office: —Butter: 71s a cwt. Cheese: White, 43s per cwt; colourj cd, 445.

! DAIRYING IN NEW ZEALAND.

CO-OPERATION WITH AUSTRALIA FARMERS’ CHIEF DESIRE. A general desire for the development of an effective system of cooperation in the marketing of Australian and New Zealand butter in Britain, and tho success attained "by factories in controlling the moisture and salt contents of their butter, were features of the New Zealand dairy industry which particularly impressed Mr I. W. Scott, senior dairy instructor in tire Riverina, who returned from a visit to the Dominion. Mr Scott accompanied the farmers’ party to Wellington, but left them there and spent his time visiting farms and factories in Taranaki and the Waikato, and meeting prominent farmers, factory executives, and departmental officials. Everywhere lie went (says the Sydney Morning Herald) he found marketing problems a foremost subject of discussion, the possibility of import quota restrictions being imposed by Britain after July, 1935, when tire Ottawa agreements expire, being a source of widespread anxiety. He was surprised, however, by the unanimity with which ! those connected with the industry exi pressed a desire for co-operation with Australia on the British markets.

Everywhere lie went farmers showed they had given the subject considerable thought ,as also had factory directors and others. Tho general opinion seemed to be that if the Commonwealth and Dominion, who together now supply more than 50 ( per cent, of Britain’s butter imports, worked in co-operation, there would be a better chance of successfully resisting a British attempt to impose the quota, which is felt to he more or less inevitable.

CONTROL OF MOISTURE. ' From what lie saw of factory metheds, both in the Waikato and Tara- . naki, Mr Scott said he did not think | the New Zealand buttermaker had much to teach his confrere in New . South Wales. He mentioned, however, that they have been particularly successful in the Dominion in moisture and salt control. At one factory he was shown the factory returns for two months, and these indicated that . moisture had varied between 15.8 per cent, and 15.9 per cent., and salt between 1.8 per cent, and 1.9 per cent, throughout the period. In the Do- ■ minion every churn was sampled at • the grading store for moisture and - salt, a report on each being sent back ■ to the factory, and ho was told that - the average moisture content of the l butter manufactured was about 15.8 : per cent., while the salt varied be- • tween 1.5 and 2 per cent. Mr Scott also described the grading • system now in operation. There were 1 three grades—finest, first, and second —and differential payments were made according to the grading of the i cream. Factory suppliers were being ; constantly urged to improve the qual- . ity of the cream they delivered, but ; he found that factories frequently ■ secured finest grading for well over : 90 per cent, of their season’s output ■ In one case the -figure was 98 per . cent. These results, he considered, > were made possible largely by the sys- : tern of daily delivery, which was usual, the factories being comparai tively close together. The export grading standard was rigidly eniorc- • ed, and two officers were maintained in London to re-grade the whole of the Dominion’s exports on arrival. He understood that only about 2 per cent, was re-graded down. As bearing on the New Zealand industry’s efforts to meet the British consumers’ tastes, Mr Scott said that there was a growing inclination to experiment with the use of starters with the object of producing a fuller flavoured butter. The starter was used at the churn, and one factory had sent to London a small shipment of starter butter as an experiment. The blitter was examined on arrival, and the report on it was completely satisfactory, but the factory was not encouraged to repeat the experiment—the blitter was too much like Danish. GRAZING AND WINTER FEEDING. • New Zealand dairy farmers, Mr Scott said, did not seem to have very much to teach the farmers here. Rotational grazing was not nearly so systematically practised a.s lie had expected to find it, and in some districts farmers'had not regularly topdressed their pastures for two and even three years. It was universally admitted, however, even, by those who were not doing it, that topdressing paid, and in the Waikato it was often said to him that running into debt to procure fertilisers was fully justified by results. For autumn and winter feed there was, especially in the Waikato, an apparent swing back to roots from grass silage, but in the opinion of officers of tho New Zealand Department of Agriculture this was possibly due to the fact that there still was in the aggregate a considerable amount of inferior pasture, and farmers were perhaps reverting to*roots until they were able to la.v down pastures of improved strains of grasses. At the same time, there were, in Taranaki and the Waikato, areas of extraordinary productivity. In the Waikato ho was taken , through a district lying between Hamilton, Te Aroha and Taupiri. In shape this -was roughly a triangle with sides 20 miles long, and last season’s dairy output from the factories situated in that triangle was equal to no less than 21,000 tons of commercial butter. Mr Scott brought back with him a sample of butter churned’ in vacuo by a new process now being tested in New Zealand. It is claimed that churning in vacuo greatly improves the texture and “spreadability” of the butter, and enhances its keeping qualities, and the experiments are being watched with considerable interest.

FROZEN MEAT TRADE. The Rank of Now South Wales has received the following cable message, dated March 9, from its London office:— Mutton, ewes, 3Jd to beef, 2d to 3§d; pork, S|d to 6d. FEILDIXG SALE. The New Zealand Farmers’ Co-operative Distributing Coy., Ltd., report ns follows on the Feilding sale: —The demand foi breeding ewes was well up to the previous week, although prices for best ewes showed a slight drop. There was a keen salo for store lambs at slightly higher values. Best 2-tooth ewes improved in prices; inferior lots showed a decline. Fat sheep and lambs were firm at late rates. A heavy yarding of station cattle met with a very active market and prices continue to improve. Beef sold up to full late prices. Quotations: 4-yr ewes, 21s 6d; 4 and 5-yr ewes, 20s 3d; m.a. ewes, 19s 4d; 2-th ewes, 335, 25s 3d, 24s lOd, 24s 7d, 23s 6d, 235; woolly b.f. lambs, 17s; b.f. lambs, 16s 4d; w.f. lambs, 15s 4d, 13s lOd, 13s 7d, 11s 9d; owe lambs, 16s; fat lambs, 255, 20s 3d, 20s, 19s, 15s 9d; fat ewes, 18s Id; fat b.f. 2-ths, 22s 6d; fat wethers, 23s 6d, 235, 225; S.D. rams, signs to lgn. P.A. bullocks, £7 ss, £5 8s 6d; P.A. steers, £5, £4 6s, £3 12s; P.A. heifers, £4 14s, £2 15s; P.A. cows, £4 9s, £4 Is, £3 3s; E?.H. cows, £4 10s; cows and calves, £3 17s; runners, £2 17s to 32s 6d; bulls, £5 7s 6d to £3. FARMING NEWS. RURGAL MAKINGS. A proposal to compile a book setting out the stock brands and earmarks in uso in the Oxford district, to facilitate the identification of lost stock, was made by the chairman, Mr 11. G. Parish, at a meeting of the Oxford branch of tho Now Zealand Farmers’ Union. Exports of tallow from the Dominion last month were 18131 tons, according to returns compiled by Dalgety and Co., Ltd. For tho eight months ended February 28, exports of tallow totalled 12,6791 tons, compared with 12,763 i tons for the corresponding period of 1932-33. A fine crop of maize covering approximately 100 square yards has been grown by Mr Ncems, of Matamata. The crop is from eight to eleven feet_ high, and loaded with heavy cobs. No artificial manure was used, but Mr Ncems dug in blue lupins and gavo a light dressing of lime in the spring. . . Advantage of the recent rise in Hie pnec of butter was taken by the Wangaehu Dairy Factory, and at a meeting of directors on Friday it was reported that a month’s make, 3000 boxes,_ had been sold at an average price equalling 75s m England. Butter is now selling at 68s to 60s per cwt.