DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14145, 21 August 1909, Page 8

DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

AN EARLY SEASON.

BIG INCREASE ANTICIPATED.

Last year Auckland exported a record quantity of butter, a total of 4293 tons, valued at £408,000, which, compared with the total of 910 tons for 1900, was more than satisfactory, but the season now commencing promises to see that record put in the shade. After an extraordinarily mild winter, during which dairying operations in the province never really ceased, the spring is opening with abundance of forage throughout the country, and in consequence, dairy factories are already getting busy. The beginning of next month will see the industry in full swing again ; indeed, had there been due attention paid to the value of en-silage-feeding, dairying would have been carried on sufficiently to supply all local markets during the winter without recourse to storage. Cows are coming in already, and several of the butter-factories will be in full operation before the end of this month, in fact, some are even now making considerable quantities of butter. Given average climatic conditions, it is certain that Auckland's butter export for the season just commencing will be a very heavy one, because dairy farms established at the' commencement of last season are now coming along with increased supplies, and dairy herds have been increased in the older-settled districts. The Winter Exhibition, too, has given a healthy stimulus to the industry. The butler-buyer and his agents are getting to work, ready to buy the outputs at profitable rates. The slump on the butter' market at the close of last season will probably have a lowering tendency, and no doubt the most of it. will bo made by those interested in securing contracts, but low prices in the closing hours of last season, just when the fresh makes of Continental countries were coming in, are no criterion of rates for our September make. In the circumstances, dairy-factory directors might do well to consider the situation thoroughly before accepting the low contract rates that are bound to be offered in the first instance.