HAWERA CHEESE EXPERIMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 14

HAWERA CHEESE EXPERIMENT.

Sir, —Your correspondents, " Herd Tester " and Mr. J. P. Kalaugher. are having a very interesting discussion on the above subject, so I thought I may be able to throw a little more light on this matter. About 15 years ago I supplied a cheese factory and while doing so I came across a book on cheesemaking. I have forgotten the name of the author, but in it there was a very interesting experiment carried out at the Kilmarnock Agricultural Colleges in Scotland under (he supervision of one of the professors on 5001b. of milk of various tests, also skim, and the result of these experiments were as follows: —Skim milk produced 251b. cheese; 3.2 test, 401b.; 3.6. 451b.; 4.0. 491b.; 4.6, 5411>. These figures are from memory, still they show conclusively that the higher the test the more solids there are in the milk, which bears out "Herd Tester's" contention. Again, about four years ago, tlje Taranaki correspondent of the Auckland Weekly News, writing from the Stratford district, mentioned that a. factory near that town was making lib. cheese from 71b. milk, the average test being 5.9. This was in the month of March. These two items should convince Mr. Kalaugher that he is in the wrong and not "Herd Tester." lam quite in agreement with Mr. Kalaugher when he states that the dairy farmers of the Dominion are losing immense sums of money by supplying high-testing milk for cheesemaking. My experience is that it is a losing proposition in more ways than one. Mv contention is that butter at Is 6d is as good as cheese at Is Bd. With butter, you have your skim milk for calves and pigs, for it has been proved that with a herd of cows averaging 2501b. fat you can rear and fatten pigs and one calf to every two cows. This works out on a conservative basis at 5d lb. butter-fat. So my advice to dairy farmers is to stick to the high-testing cows and they will see you through. Tesi 5,1. August 15.