LOWER DAIRY PRODUCTION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23246, 16 January 1939, Page 8

LOWER DAIRY PRODUCTION

One of the many troubles which must be exercising the mind of the Government at present is the continued decline in dairy production. During the 1937-38 season production of butter and cheese dropped by 6J per cent from the record figure established in 1936-37, and the current season to date has witnessed a further development of this ominous movement. The aftereffects of last autumn's facial eczema epidemic, coupled with a cold and comparatively dry spring, seriously affected dairying returns during the opening months, so much so that the season's shipments of butter up to the end of October represented a fall of 25 per cent. Some of the lost ground was made up during November, but now there has been a further setback, with exports of both butter and cheese for the first five months of the season showing a decline of nearjy 16 per cent. The fall in production has now continued almost without interruption for 12 months and, although climatic influences may have been operating to a certain extent, they have not been the vital factor. In the early days of the guaranteed price scheme Mr. Nash talked of so organising the dairy industry that the impetus given by increased prices would not result in over-production. Actually he has had no need to worry on that score. The Government's policy, which has resulted in ever-rising costs, allied with a shortage of farm labour, has been the most potent cause of decreased production, as is shown by the increasing tendency to reduce farming effort to a scale within the scope of the family labour unit. The position is one which demands remedial action, particularly as a steady flow of exports is even more important than regulation of imports in the effort to build up the Dominion's depleted London funds.