DAIRY SEASON

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24034, 4 August 1941, Page 9

DAIRY SEASON

CHANGE TO CHEESE

MANY problems met

JARM labour question food progress has been made with the organisation of the dairying industry r meet the altered conditions arising the change-over from butter to cheese production. The call of the B 'fish Government tor the production f 160,000 tons of cheese this season has ? n a challenge to the organising biiity of the industry, and reports to hand "suggest that it has been fully met j 3( J answered in -the achievements to problems have had to be met w factory directorates in tho provision "f additional vats,, the transfer of nliers from butter to cheese, the jfttional transport necessary to Oliver m ilk twice daily to the factories so maintain the extra shift to bo worked, and in securing adequate numof' cans. It is, stated that, apart from a definite shortage of cans, most of the difficulties have been surmounted. Double Shift in Factories

W. Marshall, chairman of directors of the New Zealand Co-operative j Dairy Company, Limited, said the position* in regard to labour was quite nroniising. Under the compulsory registration of cheese lactorv workers the Lest figures which he had seen were rerT satisfactory. "A good number of experienced cheese workers have registered and several hundred other workers have volunteered to enter the industry," l» e stated. It would be a fen- months, however, before cheese production reached its peak. 4t the moment arrangements had teen completed to work a double shift dailv in the 24 cheese factories of the companv, and an additional unit of 13 t s had been opened in the Matamata district- There were another eight factories to he completed for cheese reduction. A shortage of cans was tging experienced, and there had been suite a good deal of organising to spread .available cans among the cheese suppers. It had also been arranged for suppliers to deliver milk twice daily at tie factories. This would involve a considerable amount of additional labour on the farms, but the suppliers re re joining in what was recognised as » national contribution to the war effort. . _ Labour for Farms

The supplv of sufficient labour to man farms is still said to he causing considerable concern among farmers generally One man referred to the numerous advertisements calling for farm hands, tanging from boys and girls to mairicd couples! In July, 1940, there were 719 separate advertisements in the Herald for farm workers, and in July of this vear the number had increased to llb<3. 'lt will be of little avail to organise factory production if essential labour on the- farm is not kept up to standard: it is the supply of milk which will govern the output of cheese," stated a farmer. He felt that before long the authorities would have to discriminate between the claims of military service and those of primary production, Lach successive ballot saw further inroads being made on farm labour. A declaration of policv could not be withheld much longer if the standard of primary production was to be maintained against the day -when the_ free movement of produce "would arrive.