QUALITY IN BUTTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21793, 7 May 1934, Page 12

QUALITY IN BUTTER

Sir, —For some time past the press has been full of the faults and failings of the dairy industry of New Zealand and the public may be coming to the conclusion that the dairy business in this country has been deteriorating recently in the quality of its output and its general management. I should like to put forward a few facts and figures which will prove that this is not so. It is gratifying to know that in most of the dairying countries of the world the methods of the New Zealand dairying industry are quoted as models for their own people to follow. During the last ten years butter and cheese to the value of £168,000,000 have been manufactured and exported. The increase in value over the previous ten years (in spite of the . low prices of the recent three years) was 150 per cent, and the increase in output 200 per cent. I am sure this proves conclusively that we have risen to the occasion and complied with the call; for more production. As regards quality I say definitely that at no - during our history has the average quality of our butter been higher than it is to-day. The following figures will prove my statement. The finest grade was first instituted in 1926. In 1926 we exported 1,156,326cwt. Grading was as follows:—Finest, 75.85; first, 21.75; second, 2.4. In 1933 we had increased to 2,355,664cwt. The grading was 79.32, 19.74, .94. During seven years we havo increased our exports of butter by 1,200,000cwt., and have also improved our average quality of finest by nearly a full four points. Butter to score 93 must be of high quality, and it must be remembered that during this past seven years the grading has beentightened up, and butter that would grade 93 in 1926 would not do so today. Beferenco has been made to dirty sheds and dirty suppliers. There are a small proportion of dairy farmers, possibly 1 per cent, who are constitutionally unfitted to milk cows, which justifies the demand that suppliers should bo licensed. The great majority, however, of New Zealand dairy farmers will compare quite favourably with tlioso of any other country as regards intelligence and the appreciation of" the necessity of cleanliness to turn out the best quality butter. To those who are in a position to know, the amount of money that has been spent during the last two years in improvements to sheds and yards, also in equipment for cleaning and sterilising machines, by farmers, has been most surprising, and that in spite of their financial difficulties. Frequent statements have been made of directors who have denied their managers necessary equipment to improve quality of butter, and have bullied them as regards over-run, etc. This may be so in a few isolated cases, hut in the vast majority of factories this is not true, and any reasonable request for anr plant that will tend to improve quality has been met by factory directors, and a very large amount has been spent in recent years. Many of the co-operative dairy companies of New Zealand are quite big businesses and their management compares quite favourably with any other manufacturing concern in New Zealand, both as regards economy and efficiency. For many years iVe have done what no other manufacturer could do, that is, manufacture an article and sell i" the markets of the world in competition with any other country, and it has only been this last year or two, owing to the very low price, that we havo had to accept the benefits of the exchange. While quite aware of the necessity of further efforts to improve our quality, and also our marketing, I strongly contend that the co-opera-tive industry has a record to be proud | of. ./' J. E. Leesox. Chairman, Morrinsville Co-operative I Dairy Company.