IMPROVED DAIRY PRICES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 192, 15 July 1939, Page 8

IMPROVED DAIRY PRICES.

Two developments in Britain of interest to New Zealand dairy farmers, in the past week, have been the recovery in prices for butter and cheese and the British Government’s progress with its Milk Bill. In respect of the former, butter quotations (120 s) have passed the guaranteed price (124 s 13d) and cheese has also improved, though not quite to the same extent. It will be recalled that the British Government in 1907 gave an assurance that a levy would not be imposed on Dominion produce, in order to subsidise Home farmers, if butter did not fall below 107 s a hundredweight and cheese below 575. But butter fell as low as 105 s in May and cheese actually went down to 50s. The recovery is timely, because it is probable that in affording assistance under the new Milk Bill the Exchequer might have been influenced by what the Home producers term our “subsidised” exports _ oi dairy produce and the British Government might have felt impelled to review the question of a levy, since the burden of assistance to be granted from the Exchequer would have been greater in the face of much cheaper imported produce. The price recovery, therefore, has a twofold benefit in that it will help to recoup the deficiency in the Primary Produce* Marketing Account —already a substantial sum for this season —and remove fears, if any, of a levy. The British Milk Marketing Board was able in the past year To dispose of a substantially greater quantity of milk at improved prices, and the Milk Bill’s assistance also will put the Home producers in a happier frame of mind ; the improved return to them under the Board last year was over £5,000,000. A great part of the increase in the milk yield at Home, it is worth noting, was disposed of in liquid form, and that, therefore , has avoided any danger of glutting the butter and cheese market. The new legislation, which aims at encouraging the quality of milk production, will also seek to promote the greater consumption of liquid supplies. A third step is to stabilise the market for milk sold for butter and cheese. The outcome of this last phase is what concerns the New Zealand dairv producer most, and its effects will be awaited with interest.