HOW TO MAKE DAIRY FARMING PAY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1628, 13 May 1903, Page 60

HOW TO MAKE DAIRY FARMING PAY

Under the auspices of the Morayshire Farmers'’ Club, of the Fairfield Farming Company, Fort of Moiiteith. recently gave a lecture on “Dairy Farming." Mr Drysdale said many were deterred from engaging in the dairying industry owmg to its attendant drudgery, rising early and working late, seven days a week. There was no room "for an eight-hour day movement for those engaged in dairy fanning. Nevertheless, there was no branch of the farming industry that brought a quicker or more reliable return. Our climate was more suitable than that of most countries. Our pastures were equal to, f not belter than, that of any other country, and perhaps on no other equal area of the earth’s surface* could be found such variety and wealth and cattle indigenous to the soil and districts in which they were bred than* that to be found in the British Isles. They had, at the same time, to deplore the strange, but significant fact that for many years the leading agricultural societies strained every nerve and devoted large sums of money, in introducing and perfecting machinery, encouraging the use and manufacture of artificial manures, and improving rhe various native breeds of cattle for butcner purposes, without giving scarcely a passing thought to the improvement of the dairying bi'eeds of cattle, or to improved methods of manufacturing their produce. In recent years, however, a great change had taken place. Now they had dairy farmers’ associations devoting themselves to the spread of knowledge bearing on this industry. They had teachers of science and men of practical knowledge endeavouring to guide the public mind and explain all matters regarding the details of dairy work that were not before. They had. moreover, the agricultural press devoting itself to this branch of the farming industry in a way it never did before. Why, then, it might be asked in face of these conditions, had they to deplore the fact that the foreigner had beaten them in the race, and cornered them iri their own markets P Simply because they had, to use a common expression “locked the door after the steer had been stolen." The foreigner took up the question with great energy and spirit long before we in these islands, thought of it. Their Governments had done everything in their power to encourage the dairy industry, and .3)ad removed every obstacle that stool in the way. Sweden. Germany. Holland. Denmark. France, and even Siberia, had long been on the “qui vive." and now "the colonies —Australia. New Zealand, and Canada —had turned their eyes in the direction of these little islands for a market for their surplus products. What were the facts? In 1879 they imported butter to the value of <£10.250.000 into this country. In 3895 the butter imported reached, in money - value. the somewhat startling figure of <£14,245 230. and now it had reached no less a figure than <£17.500,000. In view of these facts some writers and public speakers took up a very strong position, and roundly blamed them, suggesting that they had no business to whine about AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION

so long as they allowed such enormous sums of money to go out of the country for products that they ought to supply themselves, and thus retain the money in their own country. Whilst this might be true so far —and a great deal more might be produced than they were presently doing—still, he was far from suggesting that they. could profitably produce the Avhole, or nearly the whole of the butter consumed in this country. In the vicinity of large towns and centres of industry he was convinced that the great majority of farmers were using their utmost endeavour to provide up to the producing capacity of their .farms, but it had to be borne in mind that the immense proportion of the produce of these farms was disposed of in the'shape of milk- An eminent statistician had computed that something likfc 555,000, OOOgals. of milk were consumed annually in this country, and when they further deducted wlxat was used for calf-rearing and cheese-making, they were driven to the conclusion that, even if they were producing to their utmost capacity, they could not nearly meet the enormous demand they had in that country for butter He was at the same time convinced that, possibly by a little effort, they could produce twenty times more butter than they were doing. Whilst it might be to the advantage of those situated near large towns to devote themselves wholly to the production of articles of daily consumption, such as milk and butter, those of them who were further removed from the market and who were not in a position to place their productions directly into the hands of the consumer would, he thought, be well advised to pursue the system of mixed farming-—stock-raising, and wherever possible, dairying combined Let them glance at some of the reasons that had led to the foreigner bavin* got hold of the market as lie had done TRe Danes became early _ alive to the importance of the butter industry, and the position they had taken ia the butter market of the world was extraor-

dinary. They realised that there should be no’ lialf-way house. “Either do it well or not at all," became their motto, and in the course of a few years they so changed their entire system that how they might be described as a nation of dairy farmers. In looking for a market they, like everybody' else on the face of the globe, turned their attention towards this country. What did they find? Simply' an open, unoccupied market ready to their hand. They found that during tile summer months nearly' every farmer was more or less making butter. Our markets were in summer glutted with fresh butter —much of it excellent., much of it very inferior, and a great deal of it almost unsaleable. But during the late autumn and winter months scarcely any attempt was being made to supply the market jvifh good fresh butter. Hence th© great opening the Danes at once found for their mild-cured butter. These near large centres who sold their produce from carts direct to the consumer had to keep up the standard of quality, or else they were driven from THE FIELD OF COMPETITION.

But when they' got away from the populous centres, tne quality seemed to lower, and. whether they went south, east, or north, the quality was the same. The south and south-east of Scotland would seem to be lamentably behind in this respect, lout it was not until they' got to Aberdeen that the climax was reached. Famed as that country had long been for the energy of its agriculturists in some respects, in the matter of butter-making it lagged lamentably behind. They seemed to cling to their ancient experience, and upheld their own make as the standard of excellence, until merchants had been driven to obtain their supplies from other sources, and now tons upon tons of fresh butter were weekly imported from Holland and Denmark into the north-east of Scotland. It took the place of the home-made jvhich, it lvould appear, had largely found its way to the bakers confectioners, and. in some cases, soapmakers. In ,these circumstances, how could they blame the merchants — with a supply of butter from a great variety of producers of varying quality, much of it often lying on their hands unsaleable, thereby causing friction and loss to themselves, and dissatisfaction to their customers —how' could they blame them when they turned to home factories and foreign producers, who made it their business to supply them with exactly what they required—no more and no less. If not of the highest standard of excellence, it was. at lea.se always of uniform quality all the rear round, always sw'eet and palatable, and always such that the merchant could sell at a profit and give satisfaction at the same time to the customer. The lecturer went on to discuss the position of the industry in li*ela.nd, which was at one time the principal source of butter supply to this country. In Ireland, he said, they found the very same state of matters as he had been endeavouring to describe near borne. Ireland bad already lost lier bold on the butter market, and whilst the best of the Irish cured butter wag equal, and per. haps better than most of the cured butter of the world, still, the quality of the general run of the trade left much to be desired. Ireland like ourselves, has at last bestirred lierself. She had now got a Board of Agriculture all to herself; dairy education was now receiving more attention, and factories on the co-opera-tive principle were being established all over the country. But. like ourselves, she had been too long in doing so. and it would take a great effort to recover the market she had lost. IRELAND AND DENMARK.

Had Ireland taken up the question twenty years ago with tbe same spirit and enthusiasm which she was showing to-day Denmark would never have got the hol'd of the market that she has done. The lecturer next turned attention to the countries which had captured the marked and to whether any lessons could be drawn from their systems which might be applied with advantage to ourselves. From this point of view Denmark loomed most largely in our vision. I m-1860 the British Vice-Consul reported that butter, or the article sold., as such, by the yeoman farmer was execrably bad. From that time onward they had made rapid strides in progress, till now their finest brands of mild cured butter was without rival in our market. To what was this due? Simply to steady, persistent propagation of technical instruction, and the advantages directly traceable to the system of instruction pursued were somewhat remarkable. They were given lessons in dairying all over the country. Every important farm was. in a sense, a school of instruction. Boarders were boarded at these large farms, where in many cases they gave their services for instruction and practical know-ledge received. In some cases a premium was paid. The advantages of Denmark included cheap labour and the thorough interest the Government took in prapagating and assisting the industry in every possible way. One of the disadvantages was that cows had to be house-fed from the beginning of October until the middle of May. The foreign products were loaded with antiseptics, and the lecturer suggested that home doctors might advise their patients who were suffering from indigestion to refrain from using foreign butter, which, on the evidence of an eminent authority, was loaded with antiseptics calculated' to be injurious to health, While, in his opinion,Mbey could not compete with th e foreigner in the matter of cured butter, they ought to use every endeavour to secure andi keep hold of the market for fresh butter, the tendency of the time si being to have butter as fresh from the churn as possible, and if they could! only produce the quality there would be no lack of people willing to give a good price for good home butter. But if they wished to secure this market and to hold it. they must produce it in unvarying quantities and in unvarying quality in -summer and 1 winter alike. Mr Drysdale went on to indicate

how this could he done. Driving homo hi s point, he described the mode of instruction and the system adopted io Denmark. That system included keeping notes of th© weight of the milk, of th© butter produced from given quantities of milk, the .ternperature of the cream, and other points of detail. All tli.’s involved a great deal of trouble, but this was the system which he himself had adopted for the last sixteen years in the business w'itk which ho was connected. MILK PRODUCTION

was the next head of the address. It was an old axiom, he said, to catch a hare before cooking it. The first essential of successful milk production was to have an ideal class of cows. The ideal cow was described by the lecturer. His preference was the Ayrshire cow, Bit far as it was possible to bring the calving round for a series of years, lie described the Ayrshire cow in her power for milk production, as regards quantity and quality, as pre-eminent. In districts, however, where it was not convenient to make a round of calves, the Shorthorn or cross was preferable in having the heavier carcase for the butcher. Mr Drysdale went into detail in the evidence led bet. fore the Departmental Committee on a milk standard, giving the different opinions held by experts- Some held that the quality of milk could not be affected by feeding. On the other hand, there were those who held that the quality and quantity of milk could be materially affected by feeding, and more so by careful selection of breeding. Whilst there was this divergence of opinion, there was absolute unanimity as to the beneficial result resulting from careful selection and breeding. Personally, lie advocated that they could inherently produce milk-producing 'propensities in the cow. The lecturer then dealt with they question of house-feeding, and in his criticisms was severe on some of the absurd proposals set up by their medical officers of health a.s to the amount of air space which they recommended. He went on to argue that, as to the production of milk in winter, the cows must be comfortably housed, and unless the temperature of the bvres was kept as near 56 degrees as possible great loss would result. The byres must be kept.warm, well ventilated, and free from draughts, and in Dm connection he gave a couple of useful hints in regard to the sanitation of dairy buildings. The lecturer next took up the various troubles that beset the dairy farmer, no.' tiding in particular the scarcity of labour and the difficulty of GETTING GOOD MILKERS.

He pointed out the serious loss that resulted from careless milking, and showed the difference between the analysis of the first two-tliirds of the cows milked compared with the last third, the difference being 2.3 of the butter fat as compared with 5.7. He strongly urged the importance of careful milking and. clean stripping, pointing out the bad results attending inattention to these details. A bidaily record of the milk should be kept, and there should be the most rigid cleanliness in every detail. Feeding formed the next branch of the lecture, and Mr Drysdale stated that foods which he had found beneficial and those he had found prejudicial. He next described the crops that should be adopted in dairy farms, mentioning that they ought to have Italian grass for early spring use. and tares and cabbages' for autumn use. when pastures begin to fail. The law of “equivalents" in nature was well known —tiiat something could not be got from nothing. If coavs Avere kept at a loav temperature, extra food must be consumed to compensate for the loss sustained by cold. If they had to be driven, long distances to pasture, extra food must be provided for the Avaste thus caused. If coavs in milk Avere driven too hurriedly, or chased by dogs the quality of the milk Avas changed. The nervous excitement used the fat up. He instanced cases Avhere analysis had been g’ot of coaa's that had been changed from one still 1 to another, or put to strange stall felloAvs, "when it was found that their milk depreciated in quality, at least for tAVO days. Great care should be exercised in the feeding of coavs so Dat their concentrated should have a due admixture of coarser and bulkier material. Dealing in detail with DAIRY FARMERS’* TROUBLES,

Mr Drysdale noticed milk fever and how it could be combated. As to abortion, he recommended isolation and disinfection, and a liberal use of carbolic acid, internally and externally. Tuberculosis at the moment did not Bulk so largely in the public eye as it did a year or two ago. This disease had proved a dire scourge m many a herd, but'he was convinced that if saner methods were adopted in selecting breeding stock, ventilation and housing, they would hear a great deal less about this much too prevalent mischief. If Koch would succeed in proving his theory that tuberculosis is incommunicable to man, a very serious obstacle will be removed from the dairy industry, and inilk w-ould again he more largely xised as public confidence became 5 restored. The new milk standard had for the moment eclipsed the tuberculosis scare. There were many worthy people engaged in the production and distribution cf milk who contended that the standard of 3 per cent, of butter fat was too high, and might, in certain seasons and’ under certain conditions, be too high; but it was worthy of note that those witnesses who had made a personal independent investigation for themselves, and who had the longest experience in the management of large herds of dairy cattle, and those .whose personal interests might therefor© be said to be the greatest, were the most emphatic in asking for an even higher standard than that which had been fixed. He was or the opinion that the standard was not too high. He had been testing milk on a large herd for sixteen years, besides testing the milk on those farms in his district with whom he had. dealings, ana! liis figures warranted him m saying that milk, though a natural production and not

an article of manufacture, was nevertheless largely under control by judicious feeding and careful attention to cows, and much more largely by careful selection afid breeding.

The last subject touched on by the lecturer was butter making. First, he emphasised the absolute necessity of rigid cleanliness being observed. The removal of the milk from the byres wnen the cows were milked, the milkers washing their hands after milking each cow. and the cleansing of the udder before beginning. He indicated how a dairy should be kept. Some dairies he had seen served the double purpose of larder and dairy. The ideal dairy should bo as far as possible from the dung stead and from li xious odours. The lecturer condemned the unfair way in which sanitary inspectors sometimes went about their fork. The fat of the milk from its very nituie kept rising to the surface, and even 1 hough they should keep stirring it, it continued to rise. When an inspector took a sample of milk containing - originally, say, 16 gallons, and what was two-thirds empty, that was not a fair way of go :± g about the business. What should be dme should be to take a fair ami s-pure sample of milk as it came from the dairy. In giving evidence before the commission ho strongly urged that in case of any dispute, and before any decent man was prosecuted for selling AN ADULTERATED ARTICLE, an appeal should be made to the cow — they should take a sample of milk as it came from the cow. Treating on the different methods of dealing with milk with the view of butter-making, he described the shallow pan system, the deep-setting system, the lappard system., explaining the advantages and disadvantages appertaining to each system. Lastly, he- described the more modern process' of separating the cream 'from the milk by means of the cream separator. The but-ter-making process itself was a simple one. but they must carefully observe certain conditions. He -strongly urged the necessity of using the thermometer, and referred to the temperatures at which creams should be churned under varying conditions. He deprecated agricultural societies continuing to give prizes for what was called cured butter,-as in these days nobody wanted heavily-salted butter. From his own experience in judging, he could say that many butters were spoilt by .inferior salt- and by overworking. He then referred to the Departmental Committee' appointed to fix the standard for the amount c-f moisture legitimately to be found in genuine butter. This committee was appointed to inquire into the constituents of genuine butter, the view being to> protect the genuine butter maker against the inferior comp eti tor, and th e con sui ner ag ai ns t. the fraud. He sketched how salted butters in some parts of the country were manipulated, so that they contained from 24 to 33 per cent, of moisture. He himself, as a witness before the committee, took various steps to find out not only the moisture that might be found in butter made under varying conditions of temperature by means of modern appliances, but also the moisture that might be found in genuine butter made under conditions such as were to be found in the ordinary farm. He satisfied himself that in fixing a standard of 16 per cent, they lvould not unduly handicap any genuine maker.