DAIRY PRODUCTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17657, 21 June 1919, Page 8

DAIRY PRODUCTION.

It will be a matter of regret if those engaged in the maintenance and development of our staple industries returned to their homes, after spending a pleasant week at the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Society's Winter \ Show, without taking to heart some of the not altogether pleasant things that were said with reference to the manner in which their important vocations are being conducted. The show was undoubtedly very encouraging from the producers' point of view, inasmuch as it demonstrated once more the productive potentialities of the fertile heritage that has been entrusted to us. The exhibits for the most part would have won admiration at any show, and they help us to understand why New Zealand produce takes high rank in Home markets in competition with imports from other countries. From an educational point of view, however, the main lesson of the show was to be learned at the various meetings of assembled bodies whose business it is to watch over -the interests of all those engaged in growing and marketing our staple products. While, the Minister of Agriculture observed with justifiable satisfaction that during the war period New Zealand had exported over £100,000,000 worth of produce, which had been purchased by the British Government on terms that were most advantageous to the producers, he felt impelled, as a practical man of affairs, to say that "we have got to a stage when the whole agricultural industry required to be overhauled." Among the various respects in which there is room for improvement in farming methods none is perhaps more important than the need for increasing the output of butter-fat. It is rather more important, for example, than the question of the extent of Mr Massey's responsibility for the better equalisation scheme about which some dairy farmers are now complaining. M r D. Cuddie, Director of the Dairy Division of the Department of Agriculture, made the reassuring statement that in New Zealand there were a large number of first-class cows that constituted--a foundation on which to build up satisdairy herds without importing dairy cattle. Indeed, he said, it would not be very long before such animals could be exported. He instanced the record of a New Zealand cow which in one season had produced 24,1991b of milk and 9391b of. butter-fat. If this quantity had been sent to the factories the owner would have netted £93 18s. In his last official report, ( it may be re-» called, Mr Cuddie quoted the case of a* Friesian four-year-old cow, bred from the department's imported stock, jthat yielded 21,4831b of milk, containing 7551b of butter-fat, in 365 days. Moreover, the action of an increasing .number of breeders in co-operating to secure the systematic testing of dairy cows is usefully directed towards an improvement in the yield of the dairy cows in the dominion. Nevertheless, according to the chairman of the South Island Dairy Association, the average producing value of the cow to-day is no better than it was 25 years ago, although, if proper I intelligence were used, the production might be doubled in seven years. Mr Cantrell, before retiring from the office of the president of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Society, drove home this matter of incompetent dairy husbandry when he deprecated the use of mongrel bulls.s He remarked that the dairy cows in the dominion at the present time averaged only 1611b of butterfat per cow per year,' and pointed out that if the output of butter-fat were increased by 101b per cow the effect would be to add £t>oo,ooo per year to the proceeds of the dairy industry. If the average yield of butter-fat per cow throughout the dominion could be raised to 2001b per cow—not an impossible matter—it would mean an increase of over £2,500,000 per annum to the productive wealth of the dominion. It was natural that in speaking of the possibilities of improving the unsatisfactory condition of our dairy industry Mr Cantrell should refer to what has been done in Denmark under adverse conditions that would have disheartened a nation less persistently industrious than the Danes. 'It is common knowledge that if it were not for the artificially constructed dikes, which are kept in repair at a large annual cost, 38 per cent, of the kingdom would be submerged by the inrushing sea. In spite of these physic-graphical disadvantages Danish butter secures the highest prices iu the London market against world-wide competition, and her other exports of produce are many. Out of a total area of 9,470,000 acres in Denmark 7,000,000 "are under crops and grass. The Netherlands are similarly situated. Out of a total area of 12,761 square miles nearly 5000 square miles would be submerged by the Zuyder Zee but for the protecting barriers of sand dunes, dikes, and dams. It is from that country that come the Friesian cattle such as be utilised to ' replace the " mongrel bulls" that are responsible for the low percentage of butter-fat produced by the 793,000 dairy cows which unprofitably graze on New Zealand pastures. This matter of poverty of production is of national importance, for it is from the land that we must draw the revenue te meet the charges incidental to our war indebtedness an,d to provide for contingent liabilities arising out of our participation in the great struggle which has now come to an end.