THE DAIRY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1190, 21 December 1894, Page 5

THE DAIRY.

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY IN VICTORIA. THE RECORD SHIPMENT OF BUTTER— 96O TONS. „ The fact that the 8..M.S Ophir sailed from Melbourne last Saturday with close upon 1000 tons of, Victorian butter ill her cool chambers is an event of much importance to the community in general, and to the farming interest in particular. This vast quantity of produce, remember, is only one week’s output, and its value may be estimated at not less than LIOO,OOO. Two or three years ago few people would have believed that the colony could produce 1000 tons of butter per week. For a time even the shipping companies' were dubious, and nothing but extreme pressure from the Government could convince them of the necessity for increasing the cool storage accommodation sufficient for carrying away all the butter that was "ready and in preparation to be shipped. This is a difficulty, however, which the development of the industry gradually overcomes. The shipping companies now realise that butter is one of the principal products of the colony, in conjunction with meat, and they see that it will be to their advantage to equip their vessels to fully meet the demands of the export trade in those products. In another year or so there will be no trouble about obtaining ample refrigerating space in the homeward-bound vessels. It is satisfactory to know that the highest engineering skill and means are now being devoted to improvements in the ipethod of ocean transport of perishable produce, such as butter, meat, and fruit. In the future we may confidently look forward to goods of this kind being carried and delivered in better condition and at a much cheaper rate. IMPROVED RAILWAY FACILITIES. The present railway arrangements for bringing the butter from the country to the seaboard in good condition are not so good as they might be, but they, too, are being improved as fast as the times will permit. About half-a-dozen of the new refrigerating cars are already on the track, and two dozen more will be ready and running probably before this appears in print. By December Ist, also, the ice-making plant of the Railway Department is to

be in working order, and when all these improvements are attained the losses arising from damaged butter during transit in hot weather frcm the country will be, doubtless, very, much less than in former years. SOME INTERESTING FIGURES. It will be readily understood that an industry representing the production of 1000 toiis of butter per week is worth a great deal to the country-and the community generally. Many people besides the farmers are benefited by I this trade, including butter agents and 1 middlemen,.the railways and shipping companies, etc. To produce 1000 tons of butter per week requires the milk of no fewer than 320,000 cows, estimating that each.cow yields on an average 7!b of butter per week, l't may here be explained, however, that the whole of the 960 tons of butter sent away on Saturday last was not made during the past week. Some of it, but not much, was butter held over from the preceding week, ' when 750 tons were despatched. But there are indications that the record shipment will soon be exceeded. To milk all these cows and manufacture their produce o requires a great army of workers, affording remunerative employment to thousands who would otherwise perhaps be going idle. The creamery and factory system, which is now, of course, general throughout the colony, has not only cheapened the cost of producing butter, but has done away with what might be termed; the ?* slavery ” of the business. The average yield of the dairy cows of this country may be reckoned at 1801 b of butter per annum. Within the last year or two, owing to better management chiefly, and improvement in the cattle, this yield, low as it is, compared with 'what is possible in a good dairy cow, is a vast improvement on the past. And the day is not far distant,, we venture to hope, when no farmer in this colony will maintain or keep a cow that gives less than 2001 b of butter in the year—or, in other words, 400 gallons of milk. In the old country, where the cattle are hand-fed six months out of the twelve, many daily herds average 600 gallons of milk per annum. Cows that yield as low as 400 gallons are drafted immediately, for the owner knows that such cattle do not pay for their keep": They only eat up the profits that accrue from good milkers, V FUTURE AIMS. It is my impression that the future prosperity of the dairying industry will depend more upon the improvement of the cattle employed and the methods of managing them than upon reduced ocean and railway freights or improved marketing facilities. The cow is the foundation of the whole concern, and it is to her that more attention must be devoted if the industry is to prosper in the face of a competition which is growing more intense every day. It is prophesied that prices will in the near future be considerably lower than we have ever known them before, and if such prediction come true it follows that to make the business pay the butter must be produced at a less cost than now. There are several ways of attaining this end, but the direction in which there is most room for improvement is centred in the cow. It is just as easy to cow that yields 400 gallons of milk as it is to keep one that gives 200 gallons. The difference between these two cattle from a profitable point of view, it is hardly necessary to remark, is so great that a child “can understand it. The ’2OO-gallon cow just pays for her maintenance, leaving uo profit at all to her owner after all his work and expense in tending her. On the other hand, the 400-gallon cow pays for keep, and leaves a fair profit in addition. The first cow was not worth keeping at all, and should not have been kept; yet there are many of her sort in the majority of herds. When we reckon that 200 gallons of milk at the average price of 2£d a gallon returns only L2 Is Bd, it is patent that the owners of such cows cannot have much left after paying for their keep twelve months. BREED V. FEED. The question is often debated whether the breeding of an animal or the feeding of it has most to do with its performances at the pail. But the subject hardly admits of two arguments, in my opinion. Both “ breed ” and “ feed ” have an influence, and both are necessary. Either one o£ them is only half the outfit in a milch cow. The longest pedigreed animal in the herd may be useless, and worse a great deal than the veriest scrubber, on poor feed; and so, also, is the scrubber i incomparably weak and unprofitable against the well-bred animal on good

keep. The farmer who buys or raises pedigreed cattle and feeds fcbem sparmakes mistake, and overtakes him tie invariably; flames the “ breed,” and not bis own as ho ought to do. Sack, men generally revert again to the. op<amon stock of the country, and latter do better on poor keep, • maintain and assert that there:is mpi&'MfgiUie- in the “feed ” than the “ breed” All. that may be admitted, for on ‘ f the scrubber will doubtless t&jrive better and yield more milk than; pedigreed animal. - 'But,.put two cattle on good feed, and it will be seen that there is an immense virtue in “ breed.” There is, as a rule no benefit to be gained from putting good food before ill* bred stock, for they only waste it. Th 9 proper course to take, therefore, is to onlyf,good cattle, and to feed them well. If that plan, will not succeed ho other will, and therein lies the secret of successful dairying in the The average: yield of milk per cow must be raised to _ a higher standard .than it is at ■ present. Should the time ever comey*' we hope it never will—when the price of milk falls Id per gallon, it will only be those who have improved their herds up to the 400 gal. yield that will be able, to hold on to the business. The 200gaL cows will be out of the running altogether, and so Avili their owners.— Jly Thistledown, in the Australasian, December 1. .