DAIRY FARM INSTRUCTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 23 June 1937, Page 7

DAIRY FARM INSTRUCTION

IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEM J.MI’EOVKMENT IN STANDARD OF RAW MATERIAL MINISTER’S COMMENT “L noticed in the annual report 0 f your Association that emphasis is laid on the importance of a system ol universal dairy larm instruction, the subject will shortly be placed before Cabinet, and 1 tan assure you that the Government will give careful consideration to the wishes o«' the industry,” stated the Minister of Agriculture, tl'ie lion. W. Roe Martin, , in opening the National Dairy Association Conference at Hamilton 10-dav. Farm Dairy Instruction on the basis of the appointment of men with oflieial ( status to carry out the work for Individ- ( ual or collective groups of dairy companies was started a Kaupokonui in 1912. lhe number of men eugagcil in the work lias ( varied from time to time, but at present j there are 39 instructors of this type, and two further appointments have been ap- | proved. Of tlie 363 dairy companies in the Dominion, 85 have the services of an instructor. Instructors arc at the service of prac. , tically ail the more important dairy com. panies. The total number of suppliers to dairy factories in New Zealand is 70,258, and of those 36,284 enjoy the benefits of an instructor. Let me put it another way. The amount of butter made for the year ended 31st July, 1936, was 146,687 tons, and of this quantity 103,180 tons, or i 0 per cent, was made by creameries having instructors, leaving 43,507 tons without this'service. However, the cheese manufacturers are not so fortunate. There were 85,555 tons of cheese made in the same period, and of this volume 34,356 tons, or 40 per cent., were made under instruction, leaving a balance ol 51,199 Lons without that supervision. IN 1913 In 1913, before the. present system of farm instruction was established, an inspection of 600 milking plants showed that 23 per cent, were in good condition, 2 7 per cent, fair, and 50 per cent, wer; bad. In 1935, of the machines inspected 50 per cent, were good, 41 per cent, fair, and 9 per cent. bad. Experience shows that in districts where the worii has been undertaken for the first tiro ‘ the conditions are similar fo those I'niii i by the pioneer instructors in 1913. These figures provide concrete evid nee of the service which is being rendered bv the instructors who are tackling the problem at the root. Unless the raw material ior the manufacture of butter and cheese is of a high quality, the efforts in the factories themselves will be largely frus Lrated. The conditions under which these officers have been appointed in the past have been that the Government pays half their salaries and the dairy companies the other half, plus the cost of transport. The minimum number of suppliers required to qualify for the full subsidy is 500. It has been estimated that, an additional 38 men would be required to cover those districts, which are not fullv served, and a total cost to the Dominion would be 0.0266 d -per lb of butter fat. ALLOCATING THE COST In allocating the cost as between dairy companies, the practice followed in the past has been to base it on butter-fat in some eases, and on the number of suppliers in others, as it lias been recognis ed that circumstances vary. In some districts the number of suppliers per ton of butter or cheese is very much greater than in others, and the allocation is not always equitable when based on either fat or suppliers alone. It lias been suggested that if the contribution from the dairy companies were based casually on the weight of butter-fat, and the number of suppliers to the company, this inequality would be reduced, and some consideration will be given to this point i.i the event of the Dominion scheme be ing established. A feature of recent appointments has been the number made at the request of daily companies which had dropped out and had later asked for the re appointment of officers, while correspondence has been recently received from others who have the part-time service of an officer, and who are asking for. his whole-time service. It must be kept in mind that the farm dairy instruction service is primarily one of instruction, although it is necessary in exceptional cases to make it one of inspection. The number of cases in which this attitude must be taken is fortunately low. Combined with the milk and cream grading system, it lias been respousible for a definite improvement in the standard of the raw material being delivered to our dairy factories.