MARKETING OF BUTTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21698, 13 January 1934, Page 9

MARKETING OF BUTTER

TWO AUSTRALIAN CLAIMS LESS HERD TUBERCULOSIS PRODUCE,,RICH IN VITAMINS A recent article by the agricultural editor of the Australasian claims that Australia . has two valuable selling points for her, butter in England. As New-Zealand can make similar claims with equal justification, it would bG interesting to find out if stress is laid on these points' in the marketing of -New Zealand butter. Referring to the marked disparity in prices between Australian salted and Danish butters the writer states:—" A good salesman would be on ; the lookout for selling points. A very important point is tho recent finding of the Medical Research Council—that the vitamin value of Australian butter is as great as that of the best English summer butter. It is especially rich in the two fat soluble vitamins A and D. Vitamin A is essential to growth and helps resistance to disease. Vitamin D, the rickets-preventing factor, is necessary to the formation of strong bone and good teeth.

"The presence of these accessory food factors in butter makes Australian butter a most valuable food for children, and gives it a place among the preventive medicines. In butter tested before leaving Australia, again two months later upon arrival in London, and oven after being in cold storage for two years, no depreciation of food value had taken place. It is well known that the vitamin content of butter produced in lyorthern Europe is deficient in vitamins owing to insufficient sunlight and the necessity "for stall-feed-ing cows." New Zealand Comparison In tho report referred to New Zealand and Australian butters are estimated as being equal vitamin contents, which approach those of best English Bummer butter. They are, however, much higher than in the butter produced in Europe in the winter. It is also pointed out- that the factory methods employed arid the storage conditions in transit, -do not lbwer the vitamin conteht' even for periods up to three years: "■ ' :

• Dealing with the second selling point the writer continues:—"Possibly Australia's best selling point is that she could, with very little trouble, give a guarantee that Australian butter is produced from tubercle-free herds. If we must restrict our output why not eliminate diseased cattle P Mr. H. T. lluddock; a veterinary surgeon of wide experience in Australia as well as abroad, has expressed the belief that th#:. percentage of tubercular cattle in Victoria at least is very sinall, probably less than 5 per cent. Within a very -short time Australia could have the hall mark of freedom from tubercle for all her dairy products. "No other country has' attempted this, and it is questionable whether any I other could accomplish it. When Denmark attempted the cleaning up of tubercle disease, 80 per cent of the cattle were found to be infected. If this selling point could be established in conjunction with the vitamin content which Cambridge has demonstrated, Australia's butter would rank high above that of her competitors." Testing For Tubercle The situation with-jegard to testing for.'trouble in New Zealand cows is that the farmer can have his' cows tested by' the Agriculture Department, but he must sacrifice any cows found to be diseased and accept, without question, the, small • compensation 1 laid - down. Many cows, are tested, however, and although no definite figures are available, a' veterinary authority; i# Auckland places the number found to be tubercular at probably less than 4 per cent.-There is a further point that out or all ,the tubercular,, cattle in New Zealand only a* sinall proportion would be responsible for affected milk. Much of the infected .milk' is the result of careless condition in the handling subsequent to milking. The testing of all cows in New Zealand would, be . an expensive undertaking, not so much in the actual work of conducting the tests as :in the disposal of the condemned animals'. ■ °f bright sunlight in Europe and the fact that cows must, bo housed wmtci-, makes the herds there especially liable 'to tuberculosis. An 'authority recently stated that of 3* million eowsm'England, at least a million were affected. It can' be' seen,, therefore, that stress laid on the freedom of New Zealand herds'from'tubercle, coupled with the cleanliness .of- the milking and factory. conditions- that exist here, would il strong, selling . point in the favour ,New Zealand product.