Manawatu Daily Times WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1923. BETTER THAN THE POOL.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2693, 11 July 1923, Page 4

Manawatu Daily Times WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1923. BETTER THAN THE POOL.

While the advocates of the Dairy ' Control Bi.l have been enthusiastically extolling the advantages to be derived from better marketing at the other end, a well-known authority in the South Island has quietly reminded them of a point they arc in danger of overlooking. It is that for every problematical penny they are likely to gain at the London end of their business they can with certainty gain four times as muck at this end by the I simple process of increasing the pro- | ductivily of tilth 1 herds. Ho points out i that if the Dairy Control Pill resulted in our produce fetching an extra halfpenny per lb. (-1/S per cwt.) in London it would co=d that amount for its management ard the net) additional return to t!ic producers would be nil. If, on the other n.tnd, we could produce 2701 b. of butter-fat per cow instead of 1501 b., us, he says, the cows of Canterbury to-day are producing, it would mean an increase of £10,000,000 in the.re'tlvns over the whole of the Dominion. The Canterbury averaye is, of course, a very low one. Still his point .'s a good one. The average dairy farmer can gain a great deal more by increasing his production of butter than by any possible better system of marketing, for allowing that an extra penny per lb. of butter-fat may be secured by better marketing, even al'.owing that as a nett increase from 1/8 to 1/4 per lb., it only represents two hundred pence per cow per season, placing the average production at a fairly high average figure. By increasing the average production from 20011). to 2?01b., the return yw cow would be increased by £4 7/6. This is a matter which is entirely in the farmers' own hands, depending on their own efforts. When the predicted fierce competition in the butter market comes about, the country which will survive is the one whicTi is able to produce the best article the most economically. Methods of marketing will be a secondary factor. The Danes, we are told, cannot produce butter under ISO/- per cwt., except for a very short period of the year, so that whi'.o they mny have an advantage of a few shillings per cwt. over New Zealand producers by reason of their better marketing methods—■ methods we cannot hope to equal be. cause of our very great distance from the market —our producers have a

far greater advantage in being able to turn ou equa'lv ixno<\ Putter at a far lower cost. When it is remembered that; t, -re are many dairy herds which produce an average of over 3001 b. of butter-fat per cow it will be agreed flict there is room for very great development in tin"** one direction.