DAIRYING IN DENMARK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21068, 30 December 1931, Page 5

DAIRYING IN DENMARK.

YEAR-ROUND PRODUCTION. HOUSING IN WINTER TIME. MR. E. R. DAVIS' OBSERVATIONS. Very high praise is given to tlie Danish dairy industry by Mr | Eliot It. Davis, of Auckland, who paid <1 visit to Denmark in November for the purpose ol acquainting himself with the methods of dairy production and pig-raising in use there. In an account of his trip, forwarded front London, Mr. Davis says that he is no longer surprised at th? huge volume of foodstuffs exported from Denmark to Britain. When asked why Danish butter brought higher prices than New Zealand on the London market, a Copenhagen authority, Mr. A. Brinkmann, told Mr. Davis frankly that the Danish article! was undoubtedly the better. It was, off course, not more than seven days old and had not been subjected to refrigeration, but another factor was the quality of tho cream from which it was made. ■ j "Mr. Brinkmann said that in New Zealand the milk was skimmed on the farm and the cream then sent to the factory," said Mr. Davis. "Very often, he understood, a matter of two! days elapsed between the time the ctjeam was sent to the factory and tlie skimming, the consequence being that the cream, by the time it reached the factory, was slightly sour and, in order to neutralise this, they used some kind of alkali, which counteracted the sourness. Proximity to Dairies. "He stated that the .rrnin thing required for making fine butter was to have fine milk. In Denmark they sent the milk to the dairy] twice daily, morning and night. It was in the dairy a very short while before Conversion into butter. He gave it as his opinion that therfr did not exist a sijngln f;inn in Denmark . which was, at the butside. more than three I r< miles distant from;thej nearest dairy. Consequently. the Danishj dairies did not need any neutralise!' and, therefore, the butter had a better texture and consistency, with mora 'life' in it than the New Zealand article. J "As regards tas'e, jhe Danish was superior in evervj pay. Ideal butter should taste like]/ cream, but, he said,with all respect, the New Zealand butter did not possess this qualification. The best was almost without character as regards flavour; jthe second quality had other faults. In'speaking as he did, he emphasised several timps that he was expressing no prejudice, but merely answering my question why Danish butter commanded a much higher price than New Zealand." Stabling of Cows. As it was winter time, Mr. Davis saw no cattle in the fields. "Throughout the winter the farmer stables all his cows, he said. "They are placed in stalls from October Ito April 1. This gives » tremendous advantage over New Zealand as regards output, ;but the advantage of climate in New Zealand over Denmark is very big, apd it seeins to be quite against nature's laws to jhave an anima< tied u]) for six months in a stable. "The food of tlie cowsj consists during this time of beetroot, turnip, mangels, swedes, hay and straw. All these are grown by the farmer himself, and they go in for practically no ensilage in Den-

mark." Mr. Davis was much impressed by what he saw of the control societies, which keep exact records of the food consumption and milk output of fully~ 50 per cent, of Danish cows, and advise the farmer at frequent intervals regarding diet and the culling of unprofitable animals. He visited one large "feeding station," where exhaustive tests were being made of different food rations and their effects on cows and pigs. Lesson for South Island. On a large farm of 1000 acres Mr. Davis went through a stable containing 240 cows, of the red-Danish breed, all under one roof. Each, -he was told, was milked by hand twice daily "Thg whole process of the cattle farm goes on in this stable," said Mr. Davis. "The cows have their calves in separate boxes, and three or four very fine bulls f also have their quarters in it. It was. a wonderful sight to see this number of cows contentedly chewing the cud, some lying down, others standing, of course, in very close proximity to one another. Their main feed consisted of hay, barley, straw, beets, turnips and mangels. Full particulars of every cow, including t lie previous day's milk output, were written on a blackboard above her stall. "The whole system is one which should commend itself to the New Zealand Government," concludes Mr. Davis. "The farmers in the South Island especially would find a large increase in the production of their milk if such methods were followed, instead of leaving the cattle to face all the elements of a winter quite as bad as they have in Denmark."