OBSERVATIONS ON DAIRY INDUSTRY

Northern Advocate, 25 June 1937, Page 6

OBSERVATIONS ON DAIRY INDUSTRY

Professor Riddel’s Address To N.D.C. [Special to “Northern Advocate ”] HAMILTON, This Day. “Some Observations Overseas” was the title of an address delivered to the National Dairy Conference by Professor W. Riddet, Director of the Dairy Research Institute, yesterday. As regards research work with butter, he said, experiments in the past two years had shown fnethods of mitigating; undesirable feed flavours pro- ( duced from apparently high productive pastures. He said that the work was being carried further in the direction of correlating butter flavour with types and stages of growth of herbage. It was hoped that, later, this study might embrace the effects of soil differences.

Attention had also been directed to A the mechanism of neutralising cream i and encouraging results. had already ■?1 teen published of experiments bearon this important subject. j - Importance of Uniformity. iCi Professor Riddet said that the New v Zealand industry eeuld, on no account,, I'; afford to make violent changes in the ; character of its export products, except where the change was in the dir'|j ection of removing an existing defect, ifiipr at the particular demand of a buyer. Uniformity in quality of the Dominion’s dairy products was exceedingly important. New Zealand products already enjoyed that reputation, and it should be retained, i Regarding dairy research and eduAs cation overseas,. the speaker remarked that every country was striving, by re- }., search and education, to improve the quality and increase the variety of its dairy products. Large sums every- . where were being spent on these projects. Local problems, naturally, got first consideration and it was abundantly plain, that, for the solution of i; these, New Zealand must, rely mainly on its own resources. .>• ■ Lessons to be Learned. Yet there were* lessons to be learned from other oveiseas countries.

University trained men were widely employed as officers in charge of milk, ice cream, processed cheese, dried and condensed milk plants in U.S.A. and Canada. Some were employed in but- ; ter and cheese plants. Others were in charge of dairy laboratories, which were largely used. , ‘ Touching on dairying conditions overseas, Professor Riddet said that the economic depression from which • the world was just emerging was too fresh in the minds of listeners to need emphasis. ( ‘ It was, however, a fact that milk panded very materially in the last vV* . decade, particularly in the latter j half. This was principally because r ' dairying was more remunerative h than other branches of farming. ' • Opening in United States. All available markets for dairy pro-' duets were fully explored by export- , ing countries. Consumption had increased, while general trade had re- . mained steady. “Were it'possible to land New r- Zealand butter in the United i / States on reasonable terms,” said Professor Riddet, “its quality would soon create a highly selective demand, especially in the eastem seaboard States, with their population of over 40,000,000 people and relatively high purchasing ?capacity.” Dairy farmers in that area, he explained, mainly produced city milk. Meanwhile. New Zealand butter was never long enough on the market to ' be known to the public.

r v ' Britain’s Surplus Milk. New Zealand was specially interested in the United Kingdom’s surplus milk, and the United Kingdom in .New Zealand’s cheese production. Britain i- made annually about 57,000 tons of cheese. This is nearly, 27 per cent, of her total consumption of approximate- * ly 200,000 tons, of which New Zealand supplied roughly 45 per cent. “Immediate increase in New Zealand’s cheese output would not be welcomed,” declared Professor Riddet, “but there is no heed for reduction. Further, New Zealand cheese must not, by its quality or brand, reduce the general prestige of qheese. In this connection, the trade Iftis not forgotten its antagonism to New Zealand standardised milk cheese. » “The general outlook is not unfavourable,” he concluded. “For various reasons a natural increase in British mflk production need not be anticipated, partly because of subsidy and other measures introduced to protect other branches of agriculture.”