GRADING OF MILK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21099, 5 February 1932, Page 11

GRADING OF MILK.

> - COMPULSORY SYSTEM. OPERATIVE FROM MARCH 1. MODIFIED FORM AT FIRST. o [from our own correspondent. ] HAMILTON, Thursday. Compulsory grading of milk intended for butter and cheese-making is expected to come into operation in a modified form on March 1. Regulations are now being prepared and it is hoped that these will be ready for approval by the Dairy Produce Control Board on February 17. It is not proposed to made differential payments operative for the remainder of this season, but that the interval between March 1 and the commencement of next season on June 1 should be used as a training period for managers and suppliers. A grader's certificate will not be required by those receiving the milk at the factories until a differential payment is introduced. When tho full scope of milk grading becomes effective next season, a premium will be paid on first-quality milk. Better Quality of Cheese. Referring to the decision of the Government to introduce milk grading, Mr. Dynes Fulton, a member of the Control Board and chairman of directors of the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited, said the grading of cream for butter-making was compulsory, and it had been long felt by many people in the dairying industry that the same rules should apply to milk. The object, of course, said Mr. Fulton, was to ensure as far as possible tho production of betterquality cheese.

Under the present system it was possible for suppliers of milk for butter-making to deliver their product to a creamery -where it -was churned. The cream was then delivered to a central butter factory and mixed with cream that had been purchased under a compulsory grading system before being made into butter. The milk supplier was thus given an undue advantage to which he was not entitled. For the last 10 years, the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company had graded the milk it received for cheese-making, and had paid a premium on first quality. It had done this because it had considered the principle was right. The company, therefore, welcomed the universal- introduction of the system, for it believed that it would be greatly helpful in bringing about a general improvement in the quality of New Zealand cheese. Overcoming the Difficulties. Mr. Fulton said the grading of milk was more difficult than the classifying of cream, but it was not impracticable. Some cheese company directors had opposed milk grading because they feared that their suppliers would instal separators and send their product to butter factories, especially in seasons when the price of butter was better than that for cheese, as was the case last season.

Mr. Fulton expressed the hope that the Government would go a step further and make the block system of farm instruction also compulsory. Under this system, a district would be divided into blocks and an instructor would be allocated to each block to advise farmers in the construction and care of milking sheds and in dairy hygiene. The system was already supported by some companies, including the New Zealand- Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited. The Government paid half the salaries of the instructors and the companies-paid the other half and the travelling expenses. Mr. Fulton said with compulsory milk and cream grading, and compulsory farm instruction, a great step forward in the improvement of New Zealand dairy produce was bound to follow.